Barbour History 001-99

Transcription

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Electronic Copyright 2005
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
HISTORY
BARBOUR COUNTY,
ALABAMA
MATTIE THOMAS THOMPSON
I
History brings to generations as they come and go,
The real facts and fancies, in printed story,
That glisten and shine bright, a s they show
The deeds, that bring to men and women, gloryThat lives on, as the years glide by;
The sad, the glad, that grips the heart
With memories that bring the song and the sigh,
From all, the writer of research seeks to impart.
EUFAULA, ALABAMA
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Although the \vorId moves and we move with it, there
is always the incentive. the limitation, the struggles and the
victorv. ~ v o v e iinto
~ a patloraina that emblazgjns history.
Fro111 pioneer days to present times, Barl~ourCounty has
played so col~rpiciousa part in Alabama, and the entire South's
history. that it is timely that the writer may reminiscetat and
sinking tleep into the past, give to the reading \~-orldthe story.
so full of historical facts. unique setting, alluring romance and
politics. painted red with the blood of the heroes of the W a r
Bet\veen the States-and printed in never-fading letters on the
lmolis of the County throughout Reconstructioil days
Human imagi~~ation
is never equal to the reconstructioll
of any great perlod, disaster or counterpart and no pen picture can represent the magnitude of any happenings it1 cornrnutlities that history g-lorlfies or reflects upon. Neither can
any human transactions nor an?- traditions of heroism 11e
accurately recorded unless stimulated and guided by research.
11y collal~oraior.who contril~utesthe work of their research
for publication.
When we contemplate the lives and acts of men, me
should seek out the greatest and the best. but ure should also
not fail to remember that comparison aids conception-and
since history is an inquiry, a written statement of what is
known-a description of what has already taken place-and
as Sir Francis Bacon said "makes men wise-the collaborator
should have no omissions in the record presented of any re.
search
It concerns all readers to know that the writer of a history
has given out genuine facts. thereby making the narrative twofold Interesting
.
With this solely in vie~v.special pains have been taken to
be accurate in all the family sketches and biographies
.
They havd been procured from the fa milies direct
much of the data has been gathered from the files of old n
papers published in the County.
The articles contributed bear in each case the signature
of the contributor.
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INTRODUCTION
Barbour County was 11oril in the pioneer days of Southeast Alabama, w l ~ e nover the land. there was glamor and urge,
for the outreaching of the arm of progress. to lift froill the
lethargy-even though that lethargy was held 11y a strong romance that was so fascinating, t l ~ epeople were loath to let go
entirely, although the progressive bee ~ v a sbuzzing in their
ears daily.
There are none left to tell of those days, but fortunately
there has remained, undimmed on time's pages. sonle hallmarks
-and the first step in arranging for this history has 11een to
go back to "First Settlement Days" whet1 three tribes of
Indians ruled supreme in this section of the state, which is now
Barbour County.
After these tribes were sent by t l ~ eU. S.Go\-ermneiit to
Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) a white settlement which
had sprung up, grew with the years and they ha\-e passed along
and have given to the South men and \Fromen ~vhosememory
is hallowed and blessed, ~ v h ohave 11een heroes and heroines
in the face of every conceivable injustice and ~ ~ r o nand
g who
have risen t o the heights of personal integi-it)- and intelligence
"in times that tried men's souls," that have 1,een the admiration of any citizeznship.
Barbour Couilty has proiiuced statesmen, politicians, lawyers, educators, governors, judges, senators, coilgressinen.
merchants, farmers, and business men of the highest type
and, last but not least, soldiers who &ere the heroes to whom
we hare sought to accord well merited honor ne\-el- before
given to them.
Their biographies in this history reveal their greatiless.
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DEDICATION
When "the morning stars sang together" it \\-as a jubilation
and the note that has sounded loudest down the centuries
has been a refrain of "Achievement" that has made men and
women great and their dwelling places redolent with history,
calling forth the highest enconium from their descendents and
a true and just relation concerning these people and places.
Nowhere in all the Southland has Gods' favor smiled upon,
directed and carried through crisis, more dire as in Barbour
County, nor has any county in any state in the whole United
States given of her best more illustrious and distinguished
citizenship to her honor and glory.
With this in mind I am dedicating this history to the men
who made it "The Grand Old State of Barbour''-and
feeling
that the dreams of yesterday largely make our programs and
acts of tomorxolv. i hope to put into every line of it an incentive to inspire coming generations to aim high, as their predecessors did and accomplish even more with the aid of the
advantages of the modern times, ~vhichthose of former years
did not have.
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INDEX
Page
1-looking Backward ............................................ 11
2-Historical
Facts About Towns .................... 20
3-Old Landmarks .................................................. 30
&Bridges Across Chattahoochee River .......... 37
5-Barbour County's Great Men ........................ 46
&Indians I n Barbour County ............................ 49
7-Hotels ....................................................................
66
&Insurance and Banks .......................................... 69
9-Public Halls and Theatres ................................ 74
10-Business and Industry ............................-......... 80
11-Music and Libraries .......................................... 91
12-Writers In Barbour County ............................ 112
13-Medical P r o f e s s i o n 4 Great Doctors ........ 130
1B- Historical Old Homes ...................................... 144
15-Faithful Old Servants ...................................... 160
l&County
Officials ................................................ 167
17-Reconstruction
Days ......................................... 180
18-Organization of Democratic and
Conservative Party ............................................ 184
Chapter 19-Sons of The South .................................. .
.
.
..... 190
Chapter 20-Reconstruction
Facts ........................................ 194
Chapter 21-Granger-Farmers'
Alliance and
Silver Question ...................-............-................ 207
Chapter 22-Military
................................................................
214
Chapter 23-Veterans Who Received Cross of Honor ....... 221
Chapter 2&Griersonys March Across Chattahoochee ...... 231
Chapter 25-Address of The Fifty ........................................ 245
Chapter 26-Xewspapers ..................................-....................... 254
Chapter 27-Barbour County Schools .................................. 260
Chapter &Barbour
County Churches .............................. 267
Chapter 29-Barbour County Cemeteries ............................ 290
Chapter 3 k B a r b o u r County Politics I n 1884 .................... 293
Chapter 31-Disasters In Barbour County ..........................305
Chapter 32-Unique Features in Barbour County ............ 315
Chapter 33-I'en
Lovely Old Ladies .................................... 321
Chapter 34-Old Settlers' Tea ...................................... ... . 326
Chapter 35-Pap
Speight ...................... i.................................. 329
Biographies ....................................................................... 3 3 to 567
Chapter
Chapter
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PART I
Chapter One
Looking Backward
Barbour County's glory began with its settlement, which
was unique, romantic and illumines pioneer history, on
through the Indian wars, t h e war between the states, Reconstruction days, when this section was the hot-bed of Republican inyasion and carpet-bag rule; and the heroism of its
loyal citizenship in the strife to clean County politics, are
stories that emphasize the ascertion that "of Barbour's great
men there could have been found no greater."
The County was named for James Barbour of Orange
County, Virginia, who was a delegate to the assembly of
1796 and author of the Anti-dueling law, drafter of the Public
Education Bill of 1812 and was chosen Governor of Virginia
in 1812. His name was given to the County, not because of
his high administrative connection, but because of an enviable
personal character.
The Louisville section of the County, was settled by a
colony of sturdy old Scotch men and women, who had been
reared by the blue-stocking rule of, "going to bed Saturday
evening at sundown, to begin to keep Sunday." and the community rapidiy became staid Presbyterians of the "Elect"
type, no better, to be found the world over.
Louisvillc was a t that time in Pike County and was made
the first temporary seat of County, government, but i n the
early forties, the site was changed to Clayton where the first
court house was built at a cost of $9,000.
Following the treaty with the U: S., made in 1832, in which
the Indians gave up their lands that were above the Indian
line, the Alabama Legislature organized Barbour County.
The act established that, the County provided that County
Commissioners should select a site for the County seat which
was to be moved from Louisville to Clayton. Jacob Utsey,
Daniel McKenzie, William Cadenhead, William Norton. James
A. Head, Green Beauchamp, Samuel G. B. Adams, Noah B.
Cole, Robert Richards, and T. W. Pugh, were the Commissioners.
The site for the court house was selected, and in August,
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1833, a deed was esecuted by heirs of Daniel Lewis, I\-ho had
died before the esecution was coinpletcl. (This deed to land
on which Clayton Court House 1l7asbuilt). I t was t o a committee composed of Eeaucl~ail~p,
Cole, Cadenl~ead.Head and
William Loveless, for a lot upon which to 1,uiltl a courtllouse
and jail. Harrell Hobdy and Charles Lewis \\-ere 11-itnesses
t a the deed.
T h e court house \\.as coml~letedin 1833 ant1 \\-aslocated
on t h e north~vvessterncorner of the present square. I t was a
one-room house about 20 feet square, of round logs "uilarmed
by any broad axe." There \\-as one small \vindow and a
door a t the Southeast end. Ryan Bannett was one of the inen
who could cut the four foot boards which served the building.
TheJ- were secured froin oak trees, which g e l \ - in the little
stream just east of the present square. Thomas Warren superintended the building of this first courthouse.
T h e first Circuit Court assembled in Clayton in this house
in 1834, with Judge Atlderson Crenshaw and the saine officers
that had presided ~ v h e nthe first County Court was opened
a t L o u i s ~ i l l ea year previous and the grand jurors were, William Reauchamp, Foreman, Henry Bizzell. .4aron Burlisotl,
Ivey Cadenhead, Ariel Jones, Seaborn Jones, Joi111 3IcInnis,
Daniel McLean, Benjamin D. Sellers, Thoillas Warren. Hope
D. Williams, Joel Winslett, Ezekiel Wise. Gary Rlotis \\*as
t h e bailiff.
T h e first case on the docket was a ci\-il one, and \\-as an
appeal in the case of Duncan McRae vs. John McInnis. I t \\-as
continued from court to court, and not settled until September, 1535. T h e judgemeilt entries are in the hand writing of
Jefferson Buford or George Gold~vaiter.
T h e foilon-iilg is copy of the deed executed for the land
on which the to\\-11 of Clayton was laid out, and is from Deed
Book A, page 309, in the Probate Office a t Clayton, Alabama.
State of Alabama,
Barbour County
T h e folio\\-ing indenture, made this 29th day of L)ecember
in t h e year 1836. made hetween Jacinth Jackson. Thomas
E. Efurd. Ainasa Leu-is, Susan P. Keener and Charles Lewis,
Commissioners for the County of Barbour-and
their successors in office, of the one part. and Elliott Thomas of other
part, witnesseth that ,the said Commissioners for the County
aforesaid, for and in consideratio~lof the sum of twenty six
dollars t o them in hand paid by the said Elliott Thomas, the
receipt of which is hereby acki~on-ledged,hat11 this day bargained and sold to the said John D. Thomas, heirs and assigns,
one 1.ot in the town of Clayton, known and designated in the
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plan af said to~v11.as Lot No. 1 and Lot No. 40 to have and
t o hold the al~overecited lot and bargained premises together
~ ~ y i tall
h the appertainailces thereunto. . Bargain in anq-wise
and in behalf of the said Elliott Thomas. his heirs and assigns
forever and the said corresponders for themselves and their
successors in office, cloth covenant with the said Elliott
Thomas a i d his heirs and assigns that, they will ~ v a r r a n tand
defend the said lot and l~argainedpremises. against the claim
. t e s t i i n o i ~whereof
of all persons ~ v h a t s o e ~ e rIn
~
the correspontlents hare hereunto set their hand and seals this the day
above written.
Registered January 18. 1837.
JACINTH J A C K S O S (Seal)
(Seal)
T H O S . E. EFUKD
AMASA I,E'C\TIS
(Seal)
SUSAN F. KEENER (Seal)
(Seal)
CHARLES LEWIS
By order of Charles Leu-is. Treas.
State of Alabama,
Barbour County.
Personally appeal-ecl before me, James C. Coleman. Clerk
of the Count?; Court of said Countr, C. Lewis. one of the
comn~issionersof the to\\-11 of ~ l a ~ t o to
n . con\-el- letters and
ackno~~ledg-es
~vithindeed to he made and executed By- him
forthe purpose herein - mentioned this 1st day of December,
1537.
Signed. JAMES COLEMAX. Clerk.
Circuit of Barbour County.
.
Copied from Deed Book A. page 309 "Deeds."
This is the land on which the t o ~ v nof Clayton is built.
I n the early seventies. as a convenience to citizens. who
resided in the upper section of the County, a court house was
built at Eufaula by the County. the City of Eufaula furnishing
the lot on agreement that "they have control of Municipal
offices in the building."
A Prohate office is maintained at Eufaula with a
deputc Probate Clerk and County Court is held sernii-monthly
a t ~ u ? a u l a . T h e Circuit Court Clerk also has a deputy clerk
a t Eufaula. who maintains a separate Circuit Court office.
All the other County offices are a t Clayton.
T h e Countr Board 'of Re\-enue (see Biography of C. S.
A4cDo1vell in hack of hook) Ivas established according to this
A. Jackson,
bill. it is composed of the following members:
Clio, President: A. R. WTilkinson. Blue Springs: A. E.
heimer. Eufaula; J. P. Smith, Baker Hill: G. J. Grant. Louisvile: G. C. Reeder. Sec.-Treas. Blue Springs Bank of Commerce. Clayton Depository.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT
Barbour County was founded, from portions of Pike
County and the Creek Indian cessions of 1932, which, although
approved by the Legislature of this date, did not actually beg111
practical operations, until a year later.
It has retained its present shape, except small portions
set apart to Bullock and Russell Counties.
T h e Creek Indians had ceded to the United States, a large
tract of land occupied by them and on the meeting of the
General Assembly of Alabama, following the signing of this
Treaty, Governor Dale, in his message to the Legislature. explained that, "it was the duty of that body at that session.
to lay off suitable and convenient counties and to establish.
a sy;tem of County organizations. so that protection as well
as wholesome restraints, of our laws may be speedily introBarbour, was one of the first eight counties
duced''-hence
established, all but one, being in the area ceded by the Creeks
-five of them lay along the Georgia border, viz: Barbour,
Russell,Randolph, and Benton, now called Calhoun.
The records do not show who introduced the bill, the
tenth section of which reads, that, "all that tract of land
bounded as follows, from the Kendall Lewis old stand. to
Pensacola Florida, along said road. till it strikes Pea river.
thence down said river line to Dale County. thence along said
line to the Chattahoochee river. thence up the said river to
the beginning point, which shall form and constitute one separate and distinct County. to be called by the name of Barbour." The line 13 and 14 is about two miles north of the
present site of Jernegan. Alabama and the lands in two townships, near the Chattahoochee river, were taken out of
Barbour and put into Russell, in some re-adjustment of County
lines after the "War Between the States." The area of the
County is about 850 miles (so given by several records, but
the present County Slurveyor. G. B. Espy states that it is nearer
920.
In the Southwest quarter of the state. it is partly agricultural and partly timber region. having about 33.805 acres
of forest land, 173,024 pasture land. Percentage of farm land
in cultivation, 54.5: in cotton. 43 : corn. 32: peanuts. 13: hay
and other products. 7. Population (1930 census) 32,435. The
soil is alluval suhsoil, sandy and lies between the Chattahoochee and Pea rivers. Has large deposits of Bauxite. Fuller's Earth and Potters Clay. Several Companies now operate
plants for the manufacture of the depositism and ship large
quantities.
Sixty percent of the population, till the soil for a livelihood.
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BARBOUR CENSUS
The first census of Barhour County, was taken in 1837.
showing a population of 7348.
1840 .................................... 12,024
1850 .................................... 23,632
1860 ................-................... 30,812
1870 ......-.............................29,309
1880 .................................... 33,972
1890 ....-...............................34,898
1900 .................................... 35,151
1910 ...............-....................32,725
1920 .................................... 32,728
1930 .................................... 32,505
SOIL
The following Al~stractof the reports of Judge H. D.
Clayton of Clayton and Col. Hiram Hawkins of Hawkinsville, Barhour County: is taken from a report sent to State
Geologist, Eugene A. Smith, in 1882.
(The region reported upon lies at the headwaters of the
Choctahatchie river, and includes both the uplands and lowlands; also, the Chewalla lands are described.)
"No local cau.ses influence the growth of cotton in the
formler region, but in the Cowikee lands the heavy clews are
thought to be favorable to the growth. The uplands are gray
to red in color, and mostly sandy and porus. T h e gray lands
are about three-fourths and the red, about one-fourth of the
area. The growth upon the gray land is a mixture of longleaf pine, red, white, and post oaks, and hickory, and on that
red land the same, with additiori of walnut, persimmon, grapevines, chincapin, buckeye and the red soil is much stiffer than
the gray and has a subsoil of sometimes very hard clay and
sand underlaid frequently with a hard-pan at a depth of several
feet.
"These soils are easy of tillage a t all times, and produce the usual crops, being, however, best adapted to grain,
potatoes and peas. although cotton forms a t least half of the
cultivated crops: The most productive height of the stalk
is about three feet. About a fourth of this kind of land lies
turned out. chiefly because since the war, negro laborers cannot be induced to care for the land and keep the ditches
cleared out either on hillsides or in the bottoms, unless
especially hired for the purpose, and this takes too much
money from the owner of the land to justify him in so doing.
On some farms where the negroes have become attached to
the place, they can, by a little coaxing, be induced to keep up
the land.
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"When tnrned out fourteen -or fifteen -years and grown up
in old field pines, lands will produce nearly as ~vellas the fresh
lands when reclaimed.
A great deal of injury is done both to hills and valley by
washing and gullies. When the hillsides are turned out and
grown up in pines, the valleys are improved, there being no
washings from above.
The soil of the Co~vikeelands in Earl~ourCounty (and
the nearby counties of Russell and Bullock) is a saildy loam,
alternating with a heavier clay. sometimes prarie-like loam,
both more or less strong in lime. The color is usually gray
or yellowish, and the subsoil is also of light color. The cornmon growth is hickory, oak and long leaf pine. The three
branches of Cowikee creek flow together. before reaching the
river. On the north side of each, the land is comparatively
level and the principal growth is pine: soil light-@ay, chillcapin, and hog-wallow. On these the cotton is small. but very
prolific though most subject to rust after the land has been
cultivated for a few years.
t h of these streams. the soil is much
"On the S o ~ ~ side
stronger, with more lime, and produces a large cottonweed:
it is also better for corn. In wet seasons the land is more
difficult to till, b u t yields fine crops.
Cotton occupies four-fifths of the cultivated land, and the
height of stalk at which it is most prolific is from three to
four feet.
"About 10 per cent of the land lies out, but it does well
when reclaimed. The soil washes badlv on s l o ~ e s .and valleys are injured, often to the extent of 10 per cent, by the
washings from the uplands. Some slight effort has been
made to check the damage by horizontalizing,. hillside ditching,
etc., and with good success"Barbour County- is divided into two distinct parts. The
Northern soils being calcareous with a substratum of marl
and limestone and the Southern soils sandy. which has been
pronounced some of the finest cottonlands in the state. This
is due to the drainage of the three forks of the Cowikee creek.
Low and flat. it has been called a Malaria district. therefore
sparcely inhabited. The Southern half of the County. is notable for its beds of Tertiary formation with sands and loams
of stratified dsift. There Tertiary occasionally modify the
soil the deficiency of lime and the high rolling Country. with
freestone water makes this portion of the County. while not
specially suitatzle to cotton. the free use of fertilizers necessary
to a satisfactory yield.
"The bottom lands of the three or more miles of the
eastern boundary of the Chattahoochee river are exceedingly
fine.
A
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"While the lower part of the County is of brown loams
with oak, hickory and 'pine growth, yet the agriculture ~f
Barbour County depends chiefly on the blue marls of the
Cowikee and other drainages of the upper half of the County.
"Most of the cotton is raised in the upper area, but still
there is no other section of the state, ranking higher in the
production of cotton. These blue-marl lands of Barbour,
Russell and Bullock Counties, have long shown that these
lands are easily cultivated and that the soil ingredients are
the best. from many standpoints.
"From the drainage of these Blue-marl lands of the upper
part of the County and the drainage area of the Chattahoochee
river, there is-shown an excess of sand among its surface materials and there are great, deep sand beds in Dale County
and these same beds follo\v the Chattahoochee from Barbour
County to the Gulf of Mexico."
During the early eighties, Mr. Benjamin Bihb Davis, a
hardware merchant of Eufaula. (former citizen of Philadelphia,
Pa.) was deeply interested in the soil of Barbour County,
and inserted notices in the Eufaula Daily Times which aroused
interest in this matter, all over the County, and resulted in
many specimens of soil from different parts of the County,
being sent t o him, which, in turn. was sent by Mr. Davis to
the Geological Survey Department of the State at the University of Alabama.
The following is a letter received by Mr. Davis relative
to that matter which aroused enthusiasm at that time:
"Tuscaloosa, Ala.,
July, 2nd. 1884.
"Mr. B. B. Davis,
"Eufaula, Ala.
iLDearSir :
"The marl inclosed in your letter of June 21st, contains
a good deal of phosphoric acid ancl ought to he a good fertilizer,
as it is. I should think. I t holds from 1 t o 2 percent of phosphoric acid. Where did it come from? If it is in the Tertiary
formation, i t mill be particularly interesting. Please look
further into this matter. The coal you speak of is, probably
a very bitumlinous ignito. like one I have had lately from
Marengo County.
"There is no test for Phosphoric acid which you could use
without some experience in Chemical manipulation. The subin nitric acid-filtered
and
stance is . pulverized-dissolved
treated with Molybracle of Ammonia-which gives a yellow
precipitate if.phosphoric acid be present.
"Yours truly,
Signed. EUGEXE A. SMITH,
State Geologist. '
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PECAN GROVES IN BARBOUR COUNTY
-
It is very probable that the first Pecan grove planted ill
Alabama was at Glennville (then Barbour, now Russell
County). Abcut 1836-37, when the village began to grow
into the fine old town it became, some trees were planted,
brought from South Carolina, and their size and age, indicate
clearly their long life. They are still bearing.
I n the early seventies, Capt. R. F. Koll:, planted trees a t
his subur1;an home in Eufaula. Some years later, the late
Robert Moulthroy planted a Pecan orchard at his estate
' Longview' 'overlooking the Chattahoochee river, kept in high
state of cultivation by his soil, MOSSMoulthrop, which today
is a beautiful park along "Riverside Drive". Mr. Albert
Moulthrop, his son, at his farm, "Rockland," on the Western
suburbs of Eufauta also has a large pecan grove of finest
trees. In the long ago Major M. A. Brunson owned this farm
and grew the finest fig orchard ever known in all this section.
The old historic home. "Rockland," was burned recently.
Mrs. G. H. Davis grand daughter of Barbour County's
great Confederate General Alpheus Baker, at her home two
miles north oi Eufaula, (formerly the historic old Fern Woocl
home) has one of the largest Pecan groves. all these planted
about 20 years ago.
T h e Lampley Pecan orchard a t "St. Francis" notable a s
an old Indian village, 3 miles from Eufaula. covers many
acres, as does several other orchards a t various of the Lampley farms in Barbour County.
T h e largest Pecan Industry in this section however, is the
over three thousand acres in Pecans, planted by the AlaBama
Pecan Co., on the historic old Lore-Russell farin six miles
South of Eufaula on the Clayton Highway. I n about 1914
Mrs. H. C. Russell sold the fine old home and its thousailtls
of acres of farm lands to the Alabama Pecan Co., composed
of several families. that had moved here from Minnesota and
other Northern points. Young trees were set out. seeds
planted. and in a few years. this industry was in the full
flush of success. Manv new homes were built on the estate.
and Barbour County rkceived into her citizenship more than
a half dozen fine families, who are now numbered among our
most valued citizens. Among the number: Mr. F. C. Clapp,
County Agent, who was reared on a farm. Rorn a t Kasota.
Minn., July 31st, 18%. He is a graduate of The University
of Minn., and hold's a Master's degree in "Science of Soils."
He directs the Barbour County Farm Bureau, and added t o
the benefits of that organization a group insurance with permanent disability clause, a t a very low cost. H e is a live. wideawake, citizen and an asset to Barbour County.
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The city of Eufaula, at the suggestion of Col. G. I,. Comer,
some years ago purchased from the Ala. Pecan Co., several
hundred Fine Pecan Trees, planted along the side walks,
parks, of the city, on the various streets, and today these
trees are all bearing a fine yield of ' Stuart" and "Schly" nuts,
that become the property of who ever picks them up off the
ground, and the children on the streets usually keep them
well cleared up.
FINE OATS IN BARBOUR COUNTY IN 1884
Cowikke, Ala.
hlay22,1884
Editor Times :
I saw in your issue of Tuesday 20th inst., a notice of
some fine oats received by Mr. B. L. Jones of Batesville.
It affords me much pleasure to see the interest our leading farmers are already taking in this great cereal. '
Said notice stated that the earliest variety was planted
in January.
I hereby illclose you several heads that were sown February Znd, on thin lancl, with ordinary manuring. The variety is the "Hill Oat" known to you as the "Hawkins Hill"
oat, and they are undoubtedly a success, at least 4 weeks,
earlier than the orclinary variety.
W. C. SWANSON.
From Eufaula Daily Times.
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Chapter Two
Historical Facts About Towns In
Barbour County
LOUISVILLE
BY
A Louisville Citizen From the Clayton, Ala. Record
Louisville is one of the oldest t o ~ v n sin Alabama. I n
1821 when Pike County \\-as established the first County seat
was Lot~isville.
For aboui t ~ v oyears iollo~ving1932 when Barbour was
established, Louisville was the County seat of Barbour until
t Clayton.
the jail and Court house could be l ~ u i l at
T h e first court house stood in what is n o ~ iMr.
Will Bell's
garden and was still standing in the memory of citizens nonr
living in Louisville. T h e tloors of the builcling were wide.
hand-turned planks and had designs macle on the doors with heavy nails thickly studded together.
T h e first settlers of Louisville had to g o to Fort Gaines.
Ga.. t o mill. until Hagler's Mill was built three miles east of
Louisrille. T h e first settlers in Louisville section mostly
came from Georgia. North and South Carolina. and Virenia.
They were large slave owners. T h e home making spirit of
the pioneer woman is illustrated in the story of a prominent
Louisville family who moved to this section from N. C. When
the family packed their household goods to come t o what was
then a wilderness in South Ala1,ama. the wife pulled up her
rose bushes t o bring with her. T h e husl~andthought that it
would b e impracticalile to bring roses all the way from N. C..
whereon the wife replied: "I will go n-ith you into hardship.
if you will in turn let me take my roses with me." This beauty
loving spirit of the pioneer woman. is still alive in Louisville,
for Louisville is a city of flowers.
I n 1820 Louisville had four stores. in 1840. twelve stores.
T h e first houses were built of 1 0 ~ s .Louisville has always been
noted for xood schools. T h e M. E. Church was organized in
1820' and is one of the oldest churches. in Barbour County.
T h e Louisville Baptist Church was organized in 1896, and
the Presbyterian in 1900. Louisville is supported by a good
farming section and has all\-a?-s enjoyed a good mercantile
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trade. Daniel Lewis built the first house in Louisville and
named the town Lew-isville. I t was never a large town but
after the Railroad came in 1888, the to~vmwas incorporated
and governed by a Mayor and Councilmen.
Among the first settlers were Lewis', Faulks', Grubbs',
McSwains', Pugh Williams', McKaes', Lees', Shipmans',
Burches'.
Bartley C. Williams was the first Postinaster at Williamston. Notwithstanding the fact that the first settlers of
Louisville were old Scotch Presbyterians, the early Williamston settlers organized a Methodist church in 1823, which they
named New Hope. A ground was prel~aredfor Camp meetings and for many years this was a famous Camp Meeting
ground, where devout worshipers came from all parts of
Southeast Alabama. While " N e ~ vHope" church is extinct
the old church cemetery is still there and often visited by
sightseers.
T h e first recorded marriage in the county was that of
Daniel McCa11 to Mary McDaniel, both of the Pea River
Settlement. I t is stated, that they had to go nearly to Franklin
to find someone who could legally unite them in marriage.
Mr. Green Beauchakp, who wrote an early history of
the county, said that it was at ''h1ount Pleasant, which was
on the road from Louisville to Hobdy's Bridge, that John
McNiel was buried." But Mrs. Adclie McRae, who died .at
Clayton in 1932, aged 98, said "that it was on a road which
ran from Joiner's Bridge north to Louis~rille-Hol~dy's Bridge
road." McNeil had one son, a physician, who died at Clayton
in 1875 and seven daughters as follo\vs : Mrs. John Windham ;
Mrs. Daniel Currie : Mrs. Emanuel Cox : Mrs. Harrell Hobdy ;
Mrs. Judge S. Williams; Mrs. Dr. E. M. Heron and Mrs.
Lemuel Long, the latter killed in the Indian war of 1837.
Curry was for years clerk of the sessioil of Pea River Church.
Heron was a pioneer physician of Louisville. Cox, Hobdy,
and Williams, were Proininent planters. Mrs. Long, the last
of the family, died a t Louis\-ille, 1891. a t the age of 91. Jaon
McNeill's descendants are numerous in Barbour County.
It is said there were settlers in the vicinity of Louisville
as early as 1817 or 1818. By 1820 there \Irere two stores and
in 1821 it was made the County seat of Pike County of which
was the lower part of Barbour County.
Dr. E. M. Heron and Dr. 3JcRae, early physicians of
Louisville, the former some years before his death stated
that the original name \\-as spelled Lewis, honoring the Lewis
family, prominent in the early setlement, but fro111 some unknown reason, the spelli~lgwas suddenly changed to Louis,
instead of Lewis.
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John G. Morgan was one of the early merchants. H e had
been sheriff of Henry Coutlty and was a blacksmith.
Rev. Jessee Burch, a preacher whom tradition says. with
John McDonald aild their families, formed a Methodist church
and built a church house in the community near Louisville.
CLAYTON
The County Seat of Uarl~ourCounty, was moved froin
Louisville in 1883, the co~llmissioilersdeciding on the change,
because of the central location.
Judge Siom L. Perry, at the regular Court session, over
which he was presiding, ordered that the next term of Court
be held there and this first court held in the court house, a
square log structure, in March, 1834, with Judge Anderson
Crenshaw presiding.
Although as early as 1818 there had been a few. white
immigrants passing through the section, stopping for l~lollths
a t a time, there was too 1riuc1-1 worry over the Indian proposition, for settlers to hornstead, ancl it was not until about 1827,
four years after Eufaula had been settled, that Captain S.
Porter, an Indian trader's daughter, married Chilli h~cIntosh,
son of the famous Indian Chief and it was after the removal
, o f the Indians from the County that real settlement of the
town of Clayton began.
Deed Book No. 1 of the Orl~han'sCourt ill the Archives of the County sho~vsthat the land on which the city of
Clayton was laid out was deeded by John DeLochiou and
Elliott Thomas to five Commissioners who were the first
settlers of Eufaula, 21 miles from Clayton. I t is in the Central
part of the County on the historic road from Hobdy's Bridge
over Pea river to Eufaula on the Chattahoochee river.
The town was named in 1883 for Judge Augustine Clayton
of Georgia.
This little town abounds in history, full of romance,
tragedy, and has a political record that is as varied as it is
colorful. Being the County seat, it has been the high point
of the many happenings that have made the County's history
both sensational and great. I t is claimed there were settlers
on the ridge between Louis\-ille and Clay-ton as early- as 1818,
but the facts shown from Elliott. Toh~lathoil and Jno. I>.
Thomas' old records. diaries, etc.. shbw that there \\-as practically no settlement until 1823. The first settlers on this
ridge mere: Luke Bennett and James Arthur. Today it is a
beautiful, progressive town, with a handsome modern Courthouse, fine school house and several nice churches. Methodist,
Baptist. Presbyterian and Episcopal. a library. banks and
hotel, and Confederate monument. And on its streets in lovely
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'
-
homes reside some of the most distinguished families of
Alabama.
Being the County seat proper the County jail is located
at Clayton.
Among the first settlers were: William Beasley, John
Beasley, Henry Black, Wilson Collins, \Villiam Cox, Jacinth
Jackson, Daniel Lewis, Eritt Atkinson, Randall Jackson.
Most of these crossed the Chattahoochee at ~ u ' f a u l aon a
ferry operated by the Indians. Atkinson became provoked a t
the ferry charges and quarreled with the Indians, striking a
chief on the head with an iron stirrup, which ended the dispute.
That night the women of the party were anxious, fearing the
Indians treachery might attempt to harm them, but no trouble
resulted.
Lewis located a mile west of Clayton and later donated
the land upon which the courthouse \\.as built (see deed). The
Beasleys settled a m'ile east of what is now Pratt station and
Jacinth Jackson settled west of what is nour known as the
Wash McRae place. Collins settled on the old Franklin road
four miles east of Louisville.
Jim Beasley laid out the road from Clayton to Louisville.
H e was the grandfather of Hart Collins and Montfred Collins.
There is a tradition that the hill upon which Jacinth Jackson
built his l~ouse,was favorably considered at one time as the
n
County was organized.
site for the County seat ~ ~ r h eBarbour
The hoine of Matthew Fenn. descendant of Mark Wiln
and Clayton. He
liams was oil the highway l ~ e t ~ v e eEufaula
also owned a large tract of land near Hobdy's Bridge.
The earliest settlers in the Pea River community were:
Jessie Burch. Blake Jernegan, Alexander McCall, John McDaniel, John McInnis, &files McInnis, Gilbert McEachern,
John McNeill. and Joel Willis. In 1823 they built the Pea
River Presbyterian Church, first worshiping under bush
arbors. It is tradition that this is the mother Presbyterian
Church of Barbour County.
Clio, Elamville, Blue Springs and Texasville were not
.developed until after the Railroacl. Eufaula to Ozark, was
completed. Since then these tomlls have rapidly grown.
Texasville 11-a~named to honor Judge A. H. Alston. Clio's
first name was Atkinson's head.
I11 the early seventies the cotton business ill Barbour
County n-as at its "crown and flower." and a few years after
the building of the Vicksburg and Brunswich Railroad, Eufaula to Ozark. via Clayton. Louisville, Clio, Elamville, the
immense Cotton business demanded Telegraph service, Eufaula to Clayton and Bunyan Davie there built a
private Telegraph line between Eufaula and Claxton which
years after was absorbed by the Western Union Telegraph Co.,
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after it having been used as "connecting" line successfully a
long time. In 1895 The Southern Bell Telegraph and Telephone Company built a long distance line to accommodate
the cotton shippers and buyers, Eufaula to Louisville, ancl
established an Exchange at Clayton to expedite the cotton
business a t this end of the county. The receipts froin the
Louisvjlle Oflice during 1891 were very heavy.
BATESVILLE
For many years the largest voting Precinct, voting the
largest number (consolidated with Glennville and Old Spring
Hill) of any in the county was Batesville and the citizenship
of that territory largely controlled the politics of the County
because numbered among this citizenship were men of note
who took active part in politics. It was also a religious section and there were four large churches, their pastors being
the best in the state.
The Pine Grove Baptist Church, Old Providence Methodist Church, Batesville Church and Primitive Baptist Church
and a religious atmosphere prevaded this section.
The early settlers were the Sylvesters, Irbys, Sparks,
Engrams, Johnson, Whittington, Harwell, Lamar, Martin,
Brown, Whigham, Doughtie, Boyer, Reeves, Thomas, Parker,
Smith, Tysoc. Cawthon. McLeacl, Foy, \\rilson, Moore,
Browder, Alston, Bates, Crimes, Ott, Pruitt, Margart, Otis,
Weathers, Bush, Hill, Saunders, Norton, Cook, Lunsford,
Worthington, Crawford, Woolhopter.
The land on which Old Providence Methodist Church was
built. was donated by Edward S. Ott, who was the leading
inspiration and example. for all the progress and fine citizenship that marked that locality. This historic old church was
the place of worship of a consecrated band of christians
whose descendants are outstanding today, wherever thev are
located.
BLUE SPRINGS
Blue Springs has always been an important farn~iilgsection and famous for its great natural spring ancl pool. which
for many years drew great crowds of visitors to the Blue
Springs hotel and cottages there, seeking the pleasures of a
watering place and the benefits of the curative powTersin its
water. It- is seven miles from Clio. The pool is about 35
feet deep and into this pool flows a cold stream of water
- s this stream that
that spouts u p ant1 continuall_v f l o ~ ~ into
empties into the Choctahatchee river.
Late years the hotel has not been kept open, but it is
still popular and campers and pleasure seekers go there t o
spend their vacations in the cottages.
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The section around -Blue Springs was the home of some
of the most prominent politiciails of the County and always,
at election time, there was much interest and sometimes excitement there. During campaigns it was a popular place to
hold the speakings and candidates were always sure of getting
together more listeners a t Blue Springs than most any other
place in the County.
Many memorable barbecues and picnics have been held
there, and many of the distinguished politicians and speakers
recall great times in that sectioil in the eighties and nineties.
A t a largely attended Convention held years ago in the
northern part of the state, a distinguished Alabamian (not from
Barbour) in a great speech on patriotism said, "Alabama is
divided into three parts, North Alabama, South Alabama and
Barbour County, from whence comes today, to this convention,
six great men who have helped make it the grand old third
Division of Alabama. Three Cheers for h i - b o u r County.''
The speaker was Henry W. Hilliard.
A N OLD LANDMARK
Mr. Philip Johilston of Blue Springs was in town yesterday and being the oldest inhabitant in these parts, he was
attacked by a Tiines man with the following result: Mr.
Johnston is now in his 85th year and has been a resident of
this county since 1822. H e attended the first Court ever helil
in the County. which was at Louisville and was a nleillber of
the first grand jury, which found two bills: one for assault and
battery: and one for ailultry. He married early in life, and
became the father of ten childi-en. His wife died and he remained a widower for 15 years and at the age of 60 married
a young woman of 22 to whom was born 9 children. H e is
hale and hearty and converses freely with evident relish of
the early history of the County.
CLIO
Clio is situated on the East side of 1v11at is known as
"Jugg Branch" and is a town of about 1000 population. When
the Central of Georgia Railroad was extended from Claytoil
on to Ozark. in Dale County. in 1857, Old Clio Isas inoved some
distance that it might be nearer the railroad.
Clio's first inerchant was 34urdock Martin. one of the
oldest settlers of the County. co~ningto Clio froin the Louisville settlement. L. A. Hunt. Iluncan i\IcKae. Ales Shan-,
were all early merchants.
The first hotel was run by Mrs. Mattie Hunt.
i l ~organized in 1905 by
The Clio Bailking ~ o m ~ awas
W. A. Arnold as President and the Farmers' Bank was organized by J. IS.Stephens, Pres.
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There arz three churches a t Clio : First built, Methodist;
Presbyterian next in 1902 and later the Baptist.
I n 1911 the County High School was built at Clio, a t a
cost of $12.500.00.
The first Mayor of the to\\-n was P. W. Shaw; the first
AXarshal H. C. Thompson.
The Telephoile Exchange was established, 1907.
L. A. Hunt was the leading cotton factor in that section,
and did a large business over Long Distance Telephone. The
Long Distance Telephone service was stablishd by the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1896, long before the Exchange. which was a private company? came.
When J. N. Strickland drove the first automobile down the
Main street of Clio there was a sensation created. I t was a
Maxwell car.
Prominent business men of the old and new Clio were
and are: Frank McKae. C. Mi. Knight, Uaxters, Martins,
Shaws, McInnis. Strickland, Faulks.
I t is a delightful place t o live.
*
I
GLENNVILLE
Beautiful for situation on the highest point in what \\-as
originally Barbour County. now Russell County, the reminders
of this quaint old t o ~ v nstil remain. Time mas, when it was
a seat of wealth ant1 refinement. its backgro~ui~d
was a cult~lred
one and the very atmosl~herebreathes of the happiness of the
old days, and the lines that have led froin its old honles of
wealth a n d , culture have trailed to the far corners of the
world. I t was named for, and by, one of the oldest members
of the Glenn faxnily that has been distinpished and outstanding for many generations. (See Glenn biography).
T h e earliest settlers of Glenilville community were. viz:
A. C. Mitcheli, hTassimilon Glenn, Eugene Hercdon Glenn,
J. M. Raiford. Geoi-ge Thompson. Dr. Evans Dent. John
Treutlen, Judge Cochran. MacGlenn? n o s h Glenn. William
11-ey, Malichi Iuey, Walker liichardson, Douglass. Dr. T. C.
Johnson, John Bass, Dr. Uurke. Dr. A. W. Barnett. Dr. Darwin, Dr. Lomas, Railford Logan, Dr. Anslem Evans, Abner
Bessey. The hollies were the finest.
The Glenilville Female College \\;as on of the finest schools
in the South at that time. Rankiilg A S o . 1 in e\-erv \va\-.
The St: Stephen Alission (Ep~scopal)a t ~lenA\-ille.is a
branch of St. lames Church a t Eufaula. I t was conceived and
. 31. Murry. Rector of St. James Church.
organized b v ~ e v C.
and made pGssihle by the interest and efforts of communicants
of both of these churches.
Prof. and Mrs. Douglass. President of Glennville Female
College, were the grandparents of Mrs. E. C. Motley of Eu-
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faula, whose mother was Nellie Douglass, first wife of exMayor R. A. Ballowe of Eufaula. .
T h e l~omesin Glennville before the W a r - Between the
States, were said to be the finest in the state. It was the axe
and torch, and thievery of the pilfers of the Union army that
demolished and ruined that wealthy little town.
William Lee and William Smith were the owners of thf:
first Stage Coach line through Barbour County.
That sectioil of liussell Coutlty that was at one time a
part of Barbcur Co~ultyinay well be proud of her citizenry
of that day and time. Among these the names of William Ingram, Edward Ingram, Dr. O'Neal, Scotts, Johnsoil, Thigpens,
Jelks, Scarboroughs, Longs, McGoughs, Daw-sons, Williamsons, Evans, Williams. whose descendants are valuable citizens of this section. The Glenns have given to the South
more than a half doze11 Methodist ministers, some of the
leading lights in the denomination.
MAYORS OF EUFAULA
Up to 1857 the to\vn \vas governed by an Intendant, whom
the first records' shou~swas Mark Williams, uiltil he was succeeded in the late forties by George C. McGinty, who was
.followed by John McNab.
In 1857 Dr. William II. Thoriltoi~was elected Mayor,
after the city Charter had been ~ r a n t e d .
T h e followiilg have served, vlz. :
W. H. Thornton. G. Albert Kol~erts.J. C. Pope (acting
in 1865), Johil G. Smith. Dr. Thornton again. Wells J. Bray.
G. L. Comer? P. E. McKenzie, servecl ten years. Chas. S.
McDowell, Jr., Geo. H. Dent, also served tell years, R. A.
Ballowe, Charles G. Mercer, R. D. Thomas, H. H. Canner?
Lee J. Clayton. E. H. Graves. and now Ernest Farrell.
For many years Thos. Cargill, followed by T. D Patterson,
was the town Marshall. The Chiefs of police have been
Barney Rhocly (ten years). Jeff N. Bradley (ten years), J. M.
Huguley, Porter Hatfield. 7'. M. Brannon. H. T. Johnston, Jr.,
W. C. ~ c G i l a rSeth
~ , Speight. H. C. McCullougl~s.
T h e Citv Clerks have l~eenGeorge C. h3cGiilty. E. L.
Catterville. deorge H. Sporman. A. PI. Couric. T. C. Doughtie.
and now for many years Mrs. R. M. 3icEachem (formerly
Miss Ruby Dcnbar) n-ho has been acclairnetl 113- many special
expert auditors. "the most accurate and capable lmokkeeper
I ever checked."
EUFAULA INCORPORATED
Eufaula was incorporated December 19. 1857. Dr. Iv.H.
Thornton. Mayor: George C. McGinty, City Clerk: Thomas
Cargill? Marshal : Councilmen, G. A. Roberts, Hugh Black,
N. M. Hyatt, Andrew McKenzie.
,
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MAYORS OF CLAYTON
The Mayors of the town of Clayton in successioi~have
been :
Capt. J. C. McNab, I3,F. Petty, Dr. J. J. inn, Judge A.
H. Alston, E. Perry Thomas, Judge J. S. Williams, George
W. Peach, T. M. Patterson, J. E. Martin, B. F. Kennedy, J.
T. Floyd, J. S. Snead, A. J. ~ e t h u n e George
.
A. Johnson, ~ 1 1 0 .
C. Martin, B. T.Roberts.
A. S. Borders, Jr.? Mayor: Harrison Bonds, Marshal ;
. Dykes. Night watchman.
Councilmen : J. N. Clements, S. P. Ven tress, L. P. Ellington, Thomas Parish, H. M. Fenn.
City Attorney. Presto11 C. Clayton; City Clerk, Felix
Ventress.
MAYORS OF LOUISVILLE
A. J. Lee, Sr., S. H. liixon, H. 2. Norton, W. 0. Bell, E.
P. Grant, W. 2. Hartzog. W. H. McEacl~ern,S. M. Greeb.
J. M. S!tephens, J. S. Douglass, L). R. Tillman, Judge M. L.
Albritton, W. P. Patterson.
present Officials: Mayor, Thomas D. Lee: Council
Members. Dr. G. h1. Harrison, B. D. Hurst. B. M. Grant;
'I'
A.
. ~ o = t o nE.
, E. Bennett: city Clerk, E. P: Grant.
The members of the first County Council of Louisville
were : The Lewis, Faulks. Grubbs. hlfswain, Pugh. Williams,
McRaes, Lees. Shipmans, and Birches.
NOTES FROM CLAYTON BANNER, 1853
"Major Jefferson I3uford. who raised a company of emigrants to help colonize Kansas with pro-slavery people, left
Montgomery with about four hundrecl men and had every
reason t o expect considerable accession to his company in
Selma and- Mobile. The probabilities are. that he will reach
Kansas with no less than one thousand settlers. Whatever
may be the outcome, the South owes a debt of gratitude to
one, who in darkest hour. raised the Southern standard and
freely risked everything in the Southern cause. The hopes
and hearts of thousands go with him and his follo~versin this
noble mission."
UNIQUE DEEDS
The lands deecletl 1)y the Indians and subsequently by the
Government to Mark 'CVilliarns and Durham and Floyd Lee a t
Eufaula were a stretch of three hundred and fifty feet below
the present cocrt house and two hundred feet west. was. a t
that time separate from \\-hat was then Irwinton proper.
These deeds are still in the hands of heirs of these three set-
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tlers, have been passed upon legally and declared to be so
written,. that these heirs, if they saw fit, could reclaim these
lands. An effort in this direction was made by the Lee heirs
of Williams in 1891, but Jno. C. Thomas, one of the Williams
heirs, interested himself -in squelching the suit. (He was one
of the principal heirs to gain by the suit) stating that the
persons now ow ning these lands bought them in good faith
and it would be dishonest to bring suit t o recover them, from
these parties. The lands in quesGon reach from the railroad
tracks (former Wm. McLeod lands) to the home of J. I,..
Ross on Broad Street, the stretch reaching in width from the
middle of Broad Street to middle of Barbour Street, taking
in three of the best husiness blocks in the city.
The matter was agitated again, five years ago, an attorney from Mississippi. representing the Lee heirs, coming to
Barbour county investigating, but the writer, standing firm
on her father's decision in the matter, declining to surrender
to this attorney papers she holds that would have aided hirn
in filing thesa suits.
John McXeill was the first white man buried in Barhour
county and he was Buried at Pea river on his own plantation
in 1833. I t is recorded that Indians assisted in 6urying him
and carved his coffin out of the trunk of a large oak tree.
His family moved to a farm, a mile west of Louisville, t o
be further away from an Indian village.
The children of the settlers of this particular section were :
Mrs. Harrel Hobdy (Jane), Mrs. Emanuel Cox (Sarah), Mrs.
Lemuel Long (Ann), Mrs. Judge \Villiams (Effie), Mrs.
'\lrindham (Elizaj. Mrs. Curry Kate), Mary. first wife of Dr.
Edward Heron and mother of Mrs. R. Q. Edmonson of Eufaula deceased. and one son Dr. John McNeill. who was a
physician at Clayton many years.
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Chapter Three
Old Landmarks
Stage Coaches in 1853. made a strictly "on time" schedule
route, "Silver Run" (now Seale) to Apalachicola, Florida,
and there was a branch line to Moi~tgomery,out from this
line.
T w o Companies of Infantry and one of Cavalry were
equipped and organized in Barbour for the Confederacy. The
!I.
Cavalry was commanded by John &hIoore.
The first Saw Mill in Barbour County. was located near
by John M. Moore.
the Chewalla Creek in 1835 and y a s o~~7ned
I n 1835 Mark Williams built "The Tavern". for a residence
and a hotel.
"Pea River Tavern" and the "Rest" on the stage Coach
route, was the saloon of J. G. L. Martin.
T h e first sporting place. was "Social Hall" near Glennville
and had a $10,000 race track. built hy the moneyed men of
that section.
One day recently 500 home-cured hams raised in Barbour
County, were sold ic Dale County. 1,ring 11-14. Fkom 1882
Eufaula Times.
Barbour County Cotton receipts. for week ending December 9, 1884. 2511 bales against 200Q for the previous week.
Receipts from September to December 9th-208,810
bales
ao-ainst 24,740 same time last year. 1836. showing increase of
2876 bales. The stock Thursday night was 3.670 bales-same
time last y e a r 4 . 8 3 1 ljales.
!
OLD ROADS
On the "Pony Express". Nashville. Tenn., to Montgomery,
Ala., J. I,.Pugh and James Polvell, pioneer l~uildersof Moiltgomery, rode. This stage line first begun in Henry and
Barbour Counties in 1835-36. The "Mail line', "Telegraph
line", "People's line". and "Express Mail" operated from
New York 'to New Orleans. La.. passed through the Eastern
boundary of Barbour County. crossing the Chattahoochee
river.
T w o hundred men and five hundred horses were used on
this route. The earliest roads were mere paths or trails,
hardly two feet wide and all streams had to be forded-and
at the rainy season, were often impassible.
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The secoild Federal road connecting Georgia with Alabama entered Alabauna at Fort Mitchell (then in Barbour
County) and went on to Fort S,tephens, thence to Natchez,
Miss. $12,400 appropriated by Congress for the opening of
the "Natchez Trail": and in 1938 Congress appropriated
$79,565 for.improving these roads.
In 1938, the upper Federal road" and extension of the
Military Road from Pensacola. Florida, to Fort Mitchell, ant1
from Tennessee to Louisiana.
This old Military Road had been begun by General Jacksoil in 1817 and was completed in 1820.
These were used for "Post Routes" on which Post Offices
were established-the mail went on horseback in rainy weatheiand on stage coaches in dry weather.
The Indian Trails were a net~vorkof roads from town
to town and settlement to settlement, of the upper ancl Lower
Creeks on the Chattahoochee river.
The Creeks were the laregst tribe in the states of Alabama
and Georgia. The Southern Trail "High Point Path" crossed
the Chattahoochee river at "Shallo~\?Ford" north of Atlanta,
Georgia, an dthe Trail knol1711 .as the "Trading Path" crossed
the Chattahoochee river, below Columbus, Georgia, crossing
from Stewart County. Georgia to Barbour County, Alabama,
and many of the sites selected by the Indians for crossing the
creeks and rivers ancl are now the sites of bridges over our
railroads and highways.
In the early forties "Plank Roads" were laid over the bad
places traveled. and from this came the term. "Plank Road".
It was a Rarhour County Senator. \vho in 1550 prepared a
bill that led to the chartering of 25 "Plank Road Companies" in
Alabama and from this, many Plank roads were built.
There were also "Turnpike" companies and the histories
of the State of Alabama. all show that. since 1541. the good
roads. Bridges, and taxation therefor. has been one of the
most important questions before the Legislative sessions
(luring the passing years.
When the stages began to carry passengers as ~vellas
mail, progression began to be visible everywhere and a speed
of ten miles an hour was the usual schedule time allowed
for.
Federal Roads connected Georgia and Alabama, entering Alabama at Fort Mitchell in Russell County and passed
westward to Fort St. Stephens. later on to Natchez. Miss. The
road from Pensacola t o Fort Mitchell was the old Military
Road of Jackson in 1817. Before 1840. there were three separate Coach lines. "The Mail*'. "Telegraph Line" and Peoples Line." Horses and drivers were changed every 12 miles.
County roads were maintained by citizens of the Commun-
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ity, divided into sections. In pioneer days they were called
"Pike Roads" in some places.
One of the old trail roads in Barbour County, is the road
leading from Texasville to The White Pond, which must have
been a great camping place for the Indians. because of the
fish in the White Pond in H e n r ~ -County. In 1860, there
were signs of an old Indian village near there. and Mr. James
Roberts, who owned a large plantation reaching t o White
Pond, in the late nineties. plowed up many mounds of Indian
relics. This trail, through that section, became the highway
from Dale County to Barbour. and y a s greatly tral-elled until
'the railroad from Eufaula to Ozark was built.
PLANK ROAD
W e have hitherto unintentionally neglected to notice the
completion of this enterprise. Recently the stockholders took
hold anew of the work. which for awhile had been in part
abandoned, and no\v have the road finished and in operation.
I t has been carried around the hill a t the Bridge, instead c ~ i
through it, as \\-as a t first attempted : and proves of incalculable
advantage a t a very small cost. to all who have hauling to
and froin the wharf. Those who have undertaken and completed the work certainly are entitled to the well wishes of
the community: and we can now assure our friends in Georgia, that they need no longer fear encountering a muddy.
boggy hill, in bringing their cotton and other produce into
our markets. This road is not paved.-Clipped
from "Spirit
of the South", 1853.
When theearly settlers cut a road from Franklin in Henry
County, i t led west~vardinto a dense wilderness, and these
settlers cut their 11-ay to the Pea river and made astop a t what
is now Louisville. This old road ran by Richards Cross Road
through Baker Hill to Williamston. I t turned n-estward,
passed through McSn-ean and Condry places, crossed the
present road from Clayton to Texasville near the Floyd
school and came into the Clayton and Louisville Highn-a)near Bethlehem church, three miles from Louisville.
T h e Fracklin road was the first road over which mail
was brought into Barbour County. James L. Pugh, afterward U. S. Senator 25 years. as a young man, carried this
mail from F-ranklin to Louisville.
Later in the fifties there was established a rural route
of Stage Coach line over the road which had been an Indian
trail, from Silver Run (SOTISeal. Ma.) to Marianna Florida.
and along this trail ~ v h e nused by the Indians, there mere
three Indian villages. After settlers took up lands in the
Southern part of the County. the Indians ~vithdrem-to the
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northern part and a distinct line had been drawn, dividing
the lands.
'This line entered the county about one mile north of
Mount Andrew, about six miles north of Clayton, passing
just north of Baker Hill to the Chattahoochee river a few
miles South of Eufaula. This line was called the old "Indian
Boundary line," through the Ray and Espy places. After
the Indians gave up their lands in the upper part of the
County, Mt. Andrew, White Oak Springs and Fort Browder.
were settled. Mount Andrew was named for a distinguished
Methodist Preacher.
Fort Browder was a Fort which was constructed as a
protection against the Indians, after the Fort a t Eufaula was
built. I t was on a high Hill above Batesville. The original
White Oak Springs, was on the present highway, Clayton to
Eufaula, half way between the two places. A post Office
was established a t this point as early as 1841 and A. B.
Bushilas was Post Master 30 years.
RAILROADS
The nearest railroad to Barbour County, until the early
fifties. was the southwestern Railroad, which had a depot
eight miles on the Georgia side coming from Macon, Georgia,
to that point and a stage coach ran from there to Eufaula.
&om 1857 to 1860 there was a depot just across the river,
where McKenzie's brick yard now is. I n 1862 Mr. Robert
Moulthrop came from North Haven Connecticut to work on
a river bridge the Railroad was building across the Chattahoochee river to run their trains into Barbour County. H e
had only been here a short time when the Railroad turned
do~irnthe Contractor and the bridge was turned over to him.
He manufactured the brick for the piers and completed the
bridge in late 1865. and Barhour County's first train rolled
across into Eufaula. When the Southwestern Railroad's first
depot at the extreme South end of Orange street was completed the station over the river was abandoned.
Early in the seventies. the Vicksburg and Brunswick
Railroad began their line 21 miles down the County to
Clayton and another fine depot was built on Union Street.
I n 1889 the present depot, the first of the modern ones built
by the Central of Georgia Railroad, was built. The lots on
which both the freight and passenger depots are built having
been purchased from the William McLeod estate.
When the Old Montgomery and Eufaula depot was built
in 1874-, the hl. and E. trains ceased to stop a t Hoboken as
was the case some years. During those years Hoboken was
an incorporated town with a Mayor James Sherry, Marshal
Wm. Courtney, and was a thriving little village.
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Capt. Jno. 0.Martin was agent for the M. and E. Railroad and the Agents for the Central of Georgia, which absorbed the old South\vestern and Vicksburg and Brunswick
roads, Companies, have 11een D. Phelps, John G. Smith, C. I.
McLaughlin, Dan Gugel, A. H. Stevens. C. C. Hanson, Seth
Mabry, J. A. Hartszog, J. W. Edwards.
I n 1888 the Central of Georgia Railroad was extended to
~
Clio and Elamville in BarLouisville and on d o ~ v ithrough
- b o w County, to Ozark in Dale County. The building of this
Road to Ozark ,proved an unfortunate move for the upper
half of the county, in that this road. connecting at Ozark, wit11
the Alabama Midland Railroad. carried the hulk of the retail
trade, that had always come to Barbour County from Dale,
Henry and Geneva, to ?dontgomery, Bainbridge, and later
to Dothan, Ala. Barhour County assumed bonds for the
building of this road, and yet has $750,000 worth of these to
meet, after paying on the debt for nearly 50 years. The upper
half of the County pays the larger percent of this debt annually, and instead of reapiilg a l~enefit.has lost all the trade
enjoyed hefore the road was huilt.
Senator Morgan of Alal~ama. went to France to buy
steel rails for this Alahama Midland Railroad l~ecausethe
low tariff made it possible for these rails to be imported from
France cheaper than they could be manufactured at the
steel plants in Alabama. ~ v h i c condition
l~
a t that time was due
to politics in the state. over which Barbour County representative citizens were worked up to fever heat. Congressman 7V. C. Oates undertook to help matters but did not get
sufficient support in his efforts.
NOTES
I n conversation with Mr. Thomas McRae of Louisville
and Mr. R. M. McEachern of Eufaula. we learn that the
original name given to the first settlement of Barbour
County was "Williamston". The first settlers of that section
of the County being William Williams. ~ a r e h Williams.
Bartley C. Williams. William Bush. John Danner, Mr. Copelandi and the name Williamston was given to honor this
family.
This family is possible a connection of Mark Williams,
first settler, a t Eufaula, as the Williams' of that branch, had
lived at St. George Island in the Gulf of Mexico off Port St.
Joseph, and had been GOY.Light House Keepers, (father to
son for nearly a hundred years). Rfr. McRae states that Mr.
Green Beauchamp crossed the Chattahoochee river a t Fort
Gaines, just across from the village of Franklin and settled in
the Williams Community. H e set up a store and his patrons
were both Indians and settlers. The store was on the site
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where Jim Gilcrest now lives, near Wilkerson's X roads also
called Ryan X road, between Eufaula and Clayton.
William Williams built and operatecl the first gin in BarI ~ o u rCounty, and 1)anner. who. was a German. was the first
l~lacksmitl~.
The road leading to Pensacola is thought to be T h e <'Old
Trail Blazed by Jackson's troops on his expedition to Pensacola, 1814, and took the name of "Three Notch" because troops
passing through- the forests, cut .three notches on the trees a t
intervals that troops following them might have less trouble
iollowing the trail.
The point on this road where it touches Barbour County's
original boundary, m7as near the site of "Three Notch" station on the Central of Ga. Railroad. hetween Midway and
Union Springs.
The t e r r ~ t o r yplaced in Barl~our County in 1832, lay
partly in the already existing County of Pike, 11ut more largely
in that area lately ceded 1)y the Intliall tribes that dwelt in
the section reaching- from the river l>elow Enfaula. to Columl~us.Georgia.
It is a fact that Jackso~i'sarmy passed up through Georgia. crossing the Chattahoochee river above Eufaula near
Jernegan, and t h a t on the trees in Clay, Randolph and
Stewart Counties, Georgia, through which he passed, have
"Three Notches, carved on them also. as a guide mark all
along his route of march.
MAPS
A t the Prohate Office a t Clayton. Rarl~ourCounty, there
are t ~ v omost interesting Plat Books. I Vol. of 33 pages
1 7 X l l N . A T o ~ ~ ~ - n sPlan
h i p of Plats of Barhour County.
Pinned to the first page of Vol. T. is the following telegram and letter:
"Montgomer~..;\labama.
22ntl. 1869. B. B. Fields,
Eufaula; r2laba111-. 12-25 P. M. Maps sent you ordered of
Jutlge IT. C. Russell. Price $107."
M. P. BLUE.
"Montgomery, Alabama,
April 23. 1869.
R. B. Fields. Esquire.
Eufaula. Alabzma. "Sir :
Under (late of April 15th. Judge H. C. Russell of Clayton,
Alabama. gave tne order for Township maps of Barbour
County. as recjuiretl 11y section 95 of the Revenue Sa.
H e req~~estetl
me to send the 11ook 11y express to you,
~vhichI have (lone. J telegraphed you yesterday. in which I
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stated the price of One Hundred and Seven, Dollars. Hoping
the l~ookwill come safely to l~aniland prove satisfactory.
Yours very respectfully,
IS%. P. BLUE, Sec'y of Grants.
Srecond Voluine is 24 pages of Plats of Barbour. Both
are heavy linen paper coated sheets bound in cloth.
FORT MITCHELL
Fort Mitchell is located on the Columbus, Georgia and
Eufaula, Alabama, highway, 10 miles south of Columbus.
prom 1811 to 1537 it was a military establishment; and a
United States Militarv Cemeterv was located there. From
1805 to 1336, an 1nd;an agencydsite and celebrated dueling
ground. The re~nainsof the Fort are still evident. I n the
Federal road at the Chattahoochee river crossing, is the site
of the rendezvous of Confederate Soldiers of 1861. It is the
site of a Celebrated Ball Ground play-ground of Indians in
early historic days. The starting point for side trips to 18
Lower Creek Indian villages ~vithin30 minutes auto drive.
I t is t ~ v omiles from Co\veta. tbe largest t o ~ v nof historic
recorc! in North America. Many visitors go to Fort Mitchell
also Fort Benning, Georgia, and to Seale. Ala., the County
seat of Russell County. Seale is a typical country town. and
was formerly in Barbour County.
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Chapter Four
Bridges Across Chattalioochee River
OLD AND NEW
There have been conflicting records as to the year the
first bridge across the Chattahoochee river a t Eufaula was
built. Some records showing that a wooden bridge over the
river at this point, was washed away previous to 1845, but
this is an error, as the grandchildreil of one ofthe four white
men who first settled the town have in their possession payrolls for work done on the building of the bridge in 1837 and
records s h o ~ vthat, in 1840, there was a freshet known as the
"Harrison Freshet," when steam boats passed around the
bridge on the Georgia side, all the lo~vlandon the Georgia
side, being inundated by the overflon-ed river. T h e bridge
was built in 1837, a t a cost of $20,000.00, and mas financed by
Mr. Edward B. Young, President of the Gyrwinton Bridge
Bank, the name of Eufaula havitlg been changed to "Ir~vinton"
to secure the influence of Senator William Irwin of Henry
County, in getting steamboats to land at this point.
Old diaries show that Mr. Young owlled the bridge ex-
O l d Wooden Wagon Bridge
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clusively a t one time. He sold it to the city of Eufaula in
1845.
There was a t o ~ v nof the same name in Georgia, and on
more than one occasion packages of money iilteilded for Mr.
Young's bank had been sent to the Georgia to\t-n of Irwiaton.
A t that time there were Inore than twelve thousatld ilegro
slaves in Barhour County. Several huildred of them 11-orked
on building the bridge.
During the first years ,it was a toll bridge, and the first
bridgekeeper was Lochlan McLean (who held the positioil
until early in the seventies). His daughter. bliss Lee Ellen
McLean, when her mother, Mrs. Mary Lee McLean (daughter
of Floyd Lee, first settler), died in the early 1900s, carried
her remains to Crystal Springs, Miss., and has since resided
there, where she inherited from her uncle, Quintilliail Lee,
one of the finest old mansions and plantations in Hincles
County, Miss., t o which place many of the Lee and Williams,
of Barbour County family descendants, moved after the war
between the states. The second Bridge-keeper \vas Jason
Cleghorn. Following him came John Vaughn, who for many
years
was also sexton at the cemetery, and after his death
.nls. son,
George Vaughan. After his death about 15 years
ago, a special bridge keeper employed by the city, was discontinued and i t was looked after by the \I-harf agent. Mr.
J. N. Owens, employed by W. C. Bradley of Columbus. owner
of the wharf for many years. I t n o ~ vbelongs to the city. and
there is no need for a keeper of the new steel bridge. The
wharf mias abandoized ~vl~exz
steamboat traffic ceased.
During all the long years the "bridge keepers" resided in
a little cottage a t the approach to the bridge, a t the foot oi
the hill on the Alabama side. Whenever the river reached
high water mark, (as it usually does in the Spring) in the
long ago. the steamboats had to tie up just below the wharf,
because they could not pass under the old wooden bridge,
even with their smoke stacks lowered.
Several times, one particularlly remembered? was in
April, 1886, when the river was so high that boys in batteaux, could reach their hands through the cracks bet~veen
the planks in the bridge floor and touch water.
In those old days hetween the seventies and eighties. during the cotton seas0n.a line of heavily loaded wagons filled
the bridge every day, coming to Eufaula. bringing cotton and
going back. They carried merchandise bought with the money
the cotton brought.
While the new bridge was in course of construction a
Ferry (and a very unsatisfactory one) was used and the
Georgia cotton was brought across the ri\-er (u~ithoutcost)
by the Central of Georgia Ry. Co.
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When the old bridge l~eganto show signs of being unsafe
(after repeated repairs) Charles S. McDowell at that time
Mayor of Eufaula, first conceived the idea of a new steel and
concrete bridge; and in his mind, forinulated a plan that he,
after more than ten years, ultimately succeeded, against many
odds.
When he was state Senator, he took up the matter with
the Federal Government in putting it over and the result was,
the state of Georgia, the state of Alabama and the Government
each appropriated $12,500.00, but the expense went over those .
figures and the original amount was added to, until it reached
$125,000.00. I t was a gigantic task that Mr. McDowell undertook, and his labors, ultimately crowned with success, were
unceasing and the great bridge, so fittingly named for him,
is a lasting monument, to his interest in, and work for, his
home town, county and state. When he was State Senator
he introduced this bill, and against much opposition he put it
over, and the stoy of the way he met and overcame this opposition being unique and interesting and filled with touches of
humor. T h e new bridge was built several feet higher than
the old one so that steam boats could pass under without
even lowering the smoke stacks, but alas! The day of the
steamboat has long since passed. There are hopes for a
renewal of the river traffic. through the efforts now being
made by ' T h e Chattahoochee Valley Association" to deepen
the channel, build locks and resuine boats to Apalachicola
Bay and Port St. Joe, as a means of cheaper rates of freight
transportation t o Gulf ports of export and import.
This briGge is entirely of steel and concrete with concrete banisters and floor. On the Georgia side, the approach
has been filled in to a gradual slope coming upto the long
abuttment. T h e old piers were used, but were reinforced
with many thicknesses of concrete. The entire bridge stands
out maejstically, as a great piece of engineering and skilled
workmanship.
The old "plank road" around the hill to the approach,
on the Alabama side was paved by the Alabama Highway
Company and the great "Jefferson Davis Highway", Washington, D. C. to New Orleans. crosses this bridge.
THE OLD WAGON BRIDGE A T EUFAULA
They are soon t a tear it away,
The old covered wagon bridge,
That has stood for many a day
Across Eufaula and Georgetown's Chattahoochee ridge.
Over its time. battered boards,
Has rolled as the years have passed,
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.
Georgia's harvests, in heavy loads,
Going, sometimes slow and sometimes fast.
Around its colossal, ancient square piers,
The mluddy waters swiftly flow along.
And to cross it now, gives fears,
Where oftentimes there was a song.
On the lips of those who gaily
Rode over the river, to town
And carried back with them daily
Their pay for peck and pound.
When the Spring floods have come
And the roaring stream spread wide,
The old bridge has stood, like some
Sentinel stationed above a danger tide.
T o caution, direct and carry safe over
By night and by day
Those who pass under its cover
Be they life's December or May.
The oxen, the horse, the mule
Have crossed, in creep, trot and run,
T o saddest and jolliest tune
And carried feather weight and ton.
Lovers. many, have stolen across it
And were joined in wedlock,
Whether or not they were fit,
Tomeet Life's every knock.
Slowly, funeral processions have rolled
Over, czrrying dear, beloved, dead,
While the old time bells tolled
And Life's bitterest tears were shed.
Immigrants, in frame and covered wagons,
Have trailed across it seeking places better
And here have gathered wagon t a g ons
Indian dogs, hound and setter.
Smoke stacks of steam boats, passing under,
Have scraped its time worn floor,
When fhe Spring rains and thunder,
Made the Chattahoochee rise and roar.
From its windows, latticed and cross-beamed,
The lights by faithful George Vaugn tended
Faq up and down the river gleamed,
And by their glow, fisherman nets he mended.
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It spans a curve under the bluff,
Where the current is swift and rushes
Round the water stained piers rapid enough
T o sweep under, whatever its treachery clutches.
Time, decay and lumber trucks,
Have made the old wooden bridge unsafe,
And despite the deep water sucks
And the much money it takes,
A new bridge of cement and steel,
Will take the old one's place,
And the fear we now feel
, As we ride across at snail pace
Will vanish like a morning cloud,
As n7e fly in Packarcl or Fliver
So care free, happy and proud,
With no trembling, no haulting or quiver.
It looks like a grey ribbon, stretched
Over a moving bed of molten gold,
And fastened where, Spring has fetched,
The green of Winter's cold-
To the end of the old "Plank Road"
On the Alabama side, around the hill,
And to where you see many a "Ford."
As their occupants every day ride,
T o and from the most historic city
I n Alabama or Georgia, no one will denyOver the olcl Bridge to which, it's a pity
We'll soon, have to say goodbye.
M. T.T.
THE NEW McDOWELL BRIDGE AT EUFAULA
They've torn the old historic bridge away,
And the new one has taken its place.
It's steele and cement, forever will stay,
As the travel of time, it will face.
It majestically spans the Chattahoochee, high
Up over the swiftly rolling stream,
And is the riveted and fastened tie,
That holds the realization of a dream.
All our citizens well knew
Would hold together two great states,
For a mutual interest, that not a few,
But many could foster, despite the Fatks.
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A plan was figured out the inoiley to get,
And kept working until 'twas assured,
And when pessimists would fume and fret,
Some smiled when other denlurecl.
As Eufaula always does. she won,
And the bridge is finished sure.
Thanks to Alabama's patriotic son,
So able, so loyal and so true.
The old "Plank Road" too, is gone,
And around the hill, its paved,
Complete, and travelers forlorn
nrom the old road peril are saved.
T h e great girders that tower high,
Swing out over head,
And the cement banisters, if you try
To look over, hold you like lead.
Every fitted piece is modern plan,
And skilled engineering put it there,
And as the laborers, every man
Toiled faithfully, with no time to spareThe power l~ehindthe eilterprise '
Worked equally as hard against, funds diminishedSo it is no great surprise,
That the bridge at last. is finished.
It is built many feet higher,
From the water than the other,
So that steam boats. heavy and lighter.
May pass under, without trouble further.
From the Bluff, Eufaula views it
With pride, and as we celebrate
Has founa it singularly fit
T o in these linves, just Elaborate*
By telling you that-"\Ye
needed it,"
And 'twas gotten for us."
And we can calmly. peacefully sit.
As we ride across. I{-ithout any fuss"
And rejoice in our past gloryOur present prosperity. that is yet
To be put into the long story
History will tell of \\-hat we get.
M. T.T.
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CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER AND ITS TRAFFIC
The fact that the first thing conceived by the early settlers of Eufaula to promote their interests and atlvailceinei~t
was steamboat service is significant. and froill those days
until 1922 the I-i\-el-has played a most important part in the
business and social life of the city and citizens. General 11.win, whose name the city bore inthe thirties, years after,
'carried a boat load of cotton from his Henry county plantation to Columbus. sold it, and with the money in gold and
silver, on his person was on board the steamer 'Mary" enroute
home and when the boat caught fire, he lashed the bag of
money to his body and attempted to swim ashore, but the
weight of it carried him down and he was drowned.
In October? 1865, Capt. Wingate, a resident of Eufaula,
living at the old Wingate home on Eufaula Street, had -just
brought to this river a very fine steamboat, the "Alice,"
which on a d o ~ v ntrip struck a snag tearing a hole in her hull.
Capt. Wingate rushed below with pillows and blankets to
stop the hold and never returned. His body was recovered
afterward and he is buried in Fairview cemetery. His son,
Mr. Charles Wingate. spent his life on this ri~rer. His daughters were belles in Eufaula society in the sel-ei~tiesand ilo~v
live in nei-hboring cities. April 1lth, 1883. t l ~ esteai~ler"Geo.
W. Wile?' struck the bridge a t Ft. Gaines. \\-hen the river
was very high, u-eilt to pieces and sank, all in thirty minutes.
.4bout one dozen persons were drowned. Among them Mr.
Geo. Palmer, of Colunnhus, purser, and Mr. W. J. Rivers,
second clerk. soil of Rev. K. H. Rivers at that time pastor of
the First Methodist church of Eufaula. When the boat was
sinking he called out to a deck hand, 'Fouser," he knew well:
Save me, Fcuser, for my wife and seven children's sake,"
but both went down and Mr. Ricers' body was later found,
brought here and buried in the Eufaula cemetery.
One April 2nd, 1884, the "Rebecca Everingham?' was
burned to the waters edge a t Fjtzgerald~landing, above Florence, Ga.. young Frank Lapham, a striker pilot, at the wheel
with his father, proved himself a hero by jumping over board
with a line. swinln~ingto shore and "making fast" the burning
boat. Several lives were lost. among them. Mr. J . C. Highto\\-er, father of Mrs. S. Shell~y.x h o ran back to his stateroom for something and perished in the flames. His charred
body was never found.
T h e steamboat xhich all have perhaps been most familiar
with the most interested in recent years, was the "Amos Hays. ,
She was built i t Jefferson\-ille. Ind., in 1883. under the perA.. Marcrum, familiarly called
sonal supervision of Capt. 'I?
by his legions of friends "Capt. Bose," who was her largest
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stockholder, and master. Several Eufaulians also o~vned
shares of her stock and she was a favorite with Sufaula
shippers and Eufaula steamboat travelers. Very inemorable
to some are the "pleasure party trips," to the bay, on the
"Hays." On her maiden trip up the rivei- in August, 1883,
her peculiar whistle broke up a negro camp meeting. A few
miles below Columbia, Ala., on the Georgia side. This camp
meeting was in full progress when the Hays blew to land a t
Columbia. It was a long trembling wierd sound, similar to
the notes of a "caliope," and as the sounds drew nearer the
camp ground, there was consternation, and the worshippers
fled in double quick time, exclaiming, "A Wild panter"
(panther) is after us." I t was just daylight when it blew first
for Eufaula and some of our citizens thought a circus had
come t o town unannounced. This whistle created too many
sensations and Capt. "Bose" sold it to the steam tug "Lottie,"
a t Apalachicola, Fla.
T h e most elegant steamboat ever on this river, was the
Chattahoochee, owned by the "People's Line" a t that time,
1880, called the "Plant Line." She was too large and handsome for our river and the "Plant System" transferred her
to the St. Johns river.
But, to tke traffic. In the days when Henry C. Hart was
captain on the boats, thousands of bales of cotton were shipped
to New Orleails and Sak-annah via Apalachicola. From 1870
to 1875 there was a through water rate from New Orleans and Mobile to Eufaula. The cotton rate was $1.50 per bale, Eufaula to Apalachicola. Capt. John 0. Martin owned the wharf
and Mr. T. E. Callen was the capable, accommodating and
every way efficient agent from May 20th, 1870, to January
7, 1903, a period of 33 years. H e has often been asked of late
years "what was the old brick warehouse under the hill built
for" but there are many who remember to have often seen it
overflowing with freight in the seventies and eighties. Before Woods flour mills burnd July, 1884, there .iqras often five
and six hundred barrkls of flour on the wharf at one time for
shipment. Much cotton as late as 1885 was shipped to New
York and Liverpool, by boat via Uainbridge, to Fernindenia.
Fla. Tullis & Co., shipped thousands of bales up to Columbus
to the Eagle and Pheonix Mills. this cotton being a special
high grade for very fine cloth.
Merchants a t Clayton, Ozark a i d Abbeville received New
York and New Orleans, freight ~ i Eufaula
a
by boat, and it
was stored in the old brick 17-arehouse until the long train of
wagons from these points (before the railroad was built)
hauled it out. Every iron rail of the road from Eufaula to
Clayton,, built in 1871 was received over Eufaula wharf from
boat, shipped via Apalachicola.
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Mr. Callen says he has often had fifteen hundred barrels
and boxes of transfer freight on the wharf a t one time.
T h e heavy business of his flour mills made it to Mr. R.
J. Wood's interest to o ~ v nthe wharf a ~ he
d purchased it from
Mr. Martin about 1874 or 1875. Mr. Woods sol dit to Mr.
F. W. Jennings and in 1890 Mr. Henry C. Holleman purchased
it from Mr. Tenninps.
The ~ l a b a m a~ i a l a n drailroad and other roads also tapping
the 'river below Eufaula, killed the transfer business. and the
compress here, virtually carrying the cotton to savannah,
cripped the river traffic.
I n 1903 Mr. Holleman sold the wharf to Mr. W. C.
Bradley, of Columbus. president of the Eufaula Grocery Co.,
and it is a significant fact that Mr. Bradley's interests aloilg
the river and a t Columbus and Eufaula is a very strong factor
in keeping active the river business. When Mr. Bradley
bought the ~yharf,Mr. J. N. Owens. of Columbus, succeeded
Mr. Callen as agent.
In 1922, traffic on the Chattahoochee river was abatldoned.
The old historic wharf torn away and the old days of "excursions to the Bay" and the freight and passenger traffic on
two and sometimes three boats to Columbus and Apalachicola
Bay each week, became only a glorious memory. Late years
however, a project has been started, and has gained great
heatl~vap,to secure an appropriation from the Governtnent to
Canalize the Chattahoochee and again have small passenger
boats and great freight barges again opennig up a rive:trade. The Chattahoochee Valley Associaatio~lis a t the head
of this Canalization. and opening up the Chattahoochee River
is it.; prime ol~ject.beingto open a direct waterway freight
service to foreign ports, from Atlanta and surrouncling territory to deep water at Apalachicola and Port St. Joseph.
Florida.
Barhour Co~ltltycitizens are actively aiding this project.
which. if successfully brought al~out,will he the realization
of the prophesy of the late Capt. T. A. "Bose" Marcrum, the
rnost prominent and notable Steamboat Captain and financier
that ever plied the Chattahoochee river.
The second object of the Chattahoochee Valley Association. is to build up and reestablish the farm and industrial
interests along this river valley. hoping to restore the many
fine farms that have been abandoned along the river hanks.
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Chapter Five
Barbour County's Great Men
.
Barbour County Statesmen of the past
Erave and true, are pinned high
On the wall of fame to last
As generations live and die.
John Gill Shorter was the Alabama W a r Governor, whose
record as statesman has shone down the years, and his home
was Barbour County. His diplomacy and forethought in
those troublesome days. marked him great.
Augustus Holmes Alston was Judge of Prohate of the
County during the important days ancl years of rebuilding
and the records show that his wisdom, tact and ability wrought
great things, marking his administratio11 and his labors. as
possibly the most important of any man. xvho ever held office
in the state.
A strict ancl careful investi~ationof every matter that
came up, was always made by h ~ mpersonally. before acting
upon its merits and otherwise in Barbour County, the race
problem was most serious and it was no easy matter to handle
the changing conditions. back from the reconstruction period.
but Barbour County's great men DID handle it. in the face
of blood and fire and her leaders. not once falling hack. in
their march for~vard.out of oppression and strife. into peaceful
and law abiding success-but
have written their own glory
in acts of brxvery and self sacrifice. See Biographies.
When the delegation to the Secession Convention in
Montgomery were elected January 1. 1861. .41pheus Baker
of Barhour County. was one of that number and his memorable addresses a t the presentation of the Flag of the Confederacy, by Mrs. L. C. Tyler, March 4, 1861, was called a "masterpiece of brains and oratory." See biography.
The first Regiment of Alabama Infantry. that went to
the front was commanded by Col. Henry D. Clayton of
Barbour County.
The Governor of the State of Alabama, who is recorded
the "State's greatest financial Governor" was William Dorsep
Jelks of Barbour County. leaving more money in the state
Treasury than any other Governor.
The greatest all-round business man, who was a success
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to the letter as Governor of the State mas Braxton Bragg
Comer from Barbour County.
The man who occupied one of the highest places in the
United States Senate for 25 years and was also notable as
jurist, was James L. Pugh from Barbour County.
Governor William Calvin Oates, whose career as Governor of Alabama, was notable, was not a native of Barbour
County, but was a resident of Barbour County when elected
Governor, although originally from Henry County.
S. Hugh Dent, sixteen years in United States Congress
from Montgomery County, was born and lived until middle
age in Barbour County a s did two young congressmen, from
Florida, who were his schoolmates at Eufaula, the three
serving in Congress a t the same time. The other two were,
Frank Clark, and Walter Kehoe. They met again together
at the Celebration of Eufaula's One hundredth l~irthday.
Home Coming in 1923.
Earbour County is very proud of these three Eufaulians.
Reuben F. Kolb. ~vhosefriends claim he was legally
elected to the Governorship of Alabama, on the Populite platform and ticket, but counted out, was born in Barbour
County and spent nearly all his life in the County. before
moving late in life to Montgomery.
Charles S. McDo~vell,Jr., Lieut. Gov. of Alabama, and
defeated for Governor in a campaign which outvoted him, by
an unexpected vote, that is claimed was lax in Democracy,
in its last minute t o win, policies, overthrowing McDowell's,
to the letter, Democratic platform.
Henry D. Clayton. Jr.,'s. long years as Congress~natlfrom
the third Judicial Circuit. which includes Barbour. and later
Eederal Judge, was of Barbour County, bred ancl born.
Henry R. Steagall. that mighty pourer in Congress. one
of the greatest Democratic forces of the hour. is Congressman
from the Third J ~ ~ d i c i Circuit,
al
and is not Barbour horn. but
Barhour County claims him for her own by right of many
things. chiefly personal friendship. and the pride that Barbouis a part of the District, that is served by so great a Democrat
and brilliant and outstanding man of the day and hour.
Alto Vel2 Lee, that determined, forceful legal light, that
made him not only a great lawyer and a prosecuting attorney,
who always proved to the juries. he argued before. that "there
were three things ,the Lord Himself did not know, viz.: the
will of a womany'-"which
side of a question ~vouldbe popular," and "the verdict of a petty juryy'-and he nearly always
won. He was of "the grand old State of Barbour."
Barbour County's t'ivo Supreme Court Judges, A. A.
Evans and E. Perry Thomas. knew the la\\; like they did
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their own names, and were valuable citizens froin Barbour
County.
Captain A. S. Daggett, born in Washingon, 1835, at his
death, 1937, was said to be the oldest Army officer Veteran oi
the W a r Between the States.
H e was ir! command of Company U Soldiers, stationed
in Barbour County and the time of Reconstruction troubles
of 1874. Brigadier General A. S: Daggett, owes h.is office as
Brigadier General to Dr. Zadoc Daniel who was a Barbour
'county boy, in the sixties.
One day Captain Daggett mentioned that he contemplated quitting the service. Young Daniel replied, "You are a
born Soldier, stand by the Army and you'll come out a Brigadier General s6me day. The prediction came true.
Dr. Zadoc Daniel married Laura, the daughter of Elias
Kiels, another daughter, Alice, married a man named McNair.
%
BARBOUR COUNTY ACCLAIMED GREAT
I t was a t 2 memorable political meeting in North Alabama.
many years ago, that a distinguished speaker from that section
~f the state, in the course of a speech. that \vas very notable.
said: "Alabama is divided into three distinct parts, North
North Alabama, South Alabama and Barbour County," and
wound up his speech by adding-"When
the Indians were
sent from that section t o the Government Reservation in Indian Territory (Now Oklahoma) that place was named
Eufaula, Indian Territory. because the Indians sent there
came from Eufaula, Alabama. Barbour is rich in her personal
history, having given more illustrious men and women to
the limelight of Politics. Literature. Music. Education, Philanthropy, t o the Ministry, than any othe; county in all the
South, including Governors. Senators and several Congressmen.
Some of the writers of Barbour County have reached the
very highest in their line. Eufaula is an old beautiful. cultured city, sacred to the descendants of the men who were
the first settlers.
Clayton, Alabama, also in Barbour County, shares alike
in this glory of having produced great men and women.
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Chapter Six
Indians In Barbour County
The Indian brave with bow in hand
And Arrow set, to swiftly fly ,
Resented the white man on his land,
And often raised the "War Cry."
The Indian well deserves his name of warrior. Generally
he prizes and values his honor, and the historical records show
that most of the Inclian chiefs have heen honorable and full
of valor.
From infancy. holvever, he has been taught that war was
a business. and that he was born to 11e a victorions fighter.
H e gloried in his forests and prowing fields: was brave,
hut full of craftiness and strategy. 11ut really never a thief, or
dishonest. in a legitimate deal.
To him. war was serious and he prepared for it every
day and hour of his life 11y tlancing. drinking. what the
Indians called "black drink." and 1,y (religion to him) consulting the "Great Spirit."
H e painted himself ancl l~edeckeclhis body. with feathers
and bright emblems to make themselves look like the devils
they were supposed to imitate. when fighting.
The warriors. thought more of fighting than working,
and for a livelihood chose to hunt and fish. while the squaws
stayed at home. tilled the soil and did the real work of the
tribe. each doing their hit. not measured. hut whatever they
chose to do.
As husl~ands,and wives. generally, they were true to their
mates and it was seldotn that domestic trouble ever arose over
unfaithftllness.
The Indians were revengeful. and never forgot an injury.
They mere fleet on foot. sneaking. hut not liars.
They knew n o t h i n of ~vhiskeyuntil the white man came
among them, and. unfortunately. in some settlements there
were a few of the low class whites. who bartered with the
Indians and. giving them poor whiskey and imitating the
white man, the "Fire Water" as they called it. wrought havoc
among them for both Indians and whites.
Another unfortunate fact was that low class whites began
intimate associations with the Indians.
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When Andrew Jacksot1 was elected President of the
United States, about one fourth of the territory of Alabama
was controlled (nominally) belonged to) the Indians : Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Uchees, and Creeks, and the
settlers had long wearied of living among them and of their
dominations; and when there had been an inflow of over
an hundred thousand people, by 1830, the lands these Indians
held had become necessary to the whites and a demand was
made: that the Indians be removed ancl Treaf es of "Dancing
Rabbit" (Creek, 1830; Cusseta 1 8 3 : and Echota, 1835) by
which these Indains ceded their lands to the whites were
made.
The question of the state vs. the Federal Government
was the outcome of the Creek Cusseta Treaty, ancl there was
gra.ve controversy.
The settlers on Creek lands disregarded articles of the
Treaty and many thousand settlers from other parts of
Alabama flocked in.
So tense uras the situation, in 1832 the United States
Marshall, with troops from Fort Mitchell in Barbour County
(Now Russel County) attempted to drive the settlers out
'and thereby created a very serious crisis. Congress was appealed to and protests made to the W a r Department. The
question was whether or not thees lands had been purposely
selected for the Indians-and
white settlers were about to .
be moved off in a given time.
The Coullty adjoining Barl~ourCounty (then not created)
had white settlers living on lands claimed by Indians, and
this enboldened others to homestead. And it was December.
1832, with these conditions esistiig, then "the state exerted
its right over this territory (despite the Federal Government's
claim) by creating nine new Counties of which Barbour County
was one, which gave them legal right to negotiate Treaty with
the Indians. lvhlch was done. "Sotne of the settlers were so
lawless and so notorious that they had to be ejected, antl
one, Hardeman Owens, an official of Russell County (one of
the Counties in the Creek Territory (then Barbour) and who
was an outlaw and desperado among the Indians" (so said the
Charleston Courier) "he refused to leave. and was kiled by
troops sent t o guard over him." This was one of the severe
acts of these troops stationed a t Rort Mitchell that created
great e n c i t e m i n t all over the state.
Gov. Gale was criticized for the state of things in Russell
County (then Barbour) but he took a hold stand for states'
rights.
When the State and Military Government heads clashed.
and when the Federal Commandant at Fort Mitchell refused
to turn over to the Sheriff of Russell County soldiers .and
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officers indicted for the murder of Owens Gale was forced
to send the details of the case to the W a r Department, and
finally for consideration to President Jackson.
Gov. Gale, anxious to maintain peace, had early left
orders that local militia be organized in the new counties
and begged the people to keep calm, urging the settlers to
look to the Law for protection, and refrain from violence
against the Indians." But they would not be calm. Mass
meetings were held and men volunteerecl to go to arms if
needed.
By December, excitement, both in Alabama and at Washington, were rife and the Nation, believed to l ~ eon the verge
of war.
I t was rumored that troops at Fort Mitchell were being
reinforced to uphold the treaty and legislators were preparing
Resolutions "enddangering the good principles of the Governor and authoriziilg him to see that the laws and justification
of the state, be ma~ntainedin full force and effect in the said
Counties."
The political result of this Creek Indian colltroversy was
to produce friction among the leaders of the Democratic party.
and t o weaken Jackson's influence in the state (t(hese facts
are obtained from some oltl records at Clayton. Alabama,
court house, and are verified 1)y facts related in Moore's history of Alabama.)
But the breech was closed. Gov. Gale turned over to the
Whig party, becoming a Wrig- elector in the "Log Cabin" and
"Hard Cider" campaign of 1840.
I t was clearly shown that Jackson's loss of prestige in
the state and the progress of States' Rights sentiment resulted
from the growth of the state. and the Creek Indain controversy, and gave Democrats not a little trouble it1 the middle
thirties. (See Moore's History of Alabama.)
At first the Indians were friendly in their association with
the white settlers in the villages alone the Chattahoochee. but
gradually they began to resent the intrusion of the whites,
after some missionaries and land agents from the N e ~ vEngland
states and who were in sympathy with the Indains-and an
appeal was made to the Goverilment a t Washington. seeking
some redress for what they claimed was persecution.
United States troops were sent and the section was put
under Military control. I n many cases. whites were ordered
out of the community.
These homesteaders scattered ahout in different sections
of what is now Rarbour County.
-4fter a term of terror, when there was a conflict, known
as the Indian War. and in 1827, a treaty was arranged with the
(:overnment. permitting the whites to buy land from the
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Indians, but the three tribes. the Uchees, the Creeks, and
Cherokees with' Tecumsee (Jim Henry) and Tustunneegee
chiefs again went on the warpath. From 1827 to 1835 the
settlement went through, struggling from those early days,
on through the years until 1846 and finally developed a real
settlement of Barbour County in the face of innumerable
hardships of living among Indians.
Chief Tustenuggee was their f-riend until the Creek war
broke out in 1837, when there were days and months when
the women and children had to be placed in a stockade which
had been hastily and crudely built, and this reign of terror
was not over for them until a secon~lmilitary detachment was
sent for their ~rotection.
Finally, the three chiefs. in a council of war against each
other. made Tustenuggee, the Creek Chief known as "Billy
Bolv Legs,'" leader of the Clan that for a long time had been
friendly to most of the wbites.
These three notable warriors were honorable and honest,
although ehere were many petty thieves (whic1-1was not always
the case) among the majority of the Indians among these
tribes, each of which spoke a different dialect. After the
treaty of 1832 when war had broken out again, most of the
whites along the west of the Chattahoochee went further west
in the County.
About this time John Linguarcl Hunter from South Car02
lina had come to the County and was largely influential in
having the Indains removed to the Indaln Territory now
Oklahoma,
Although sparsely settled until 1827. the town of Clayton
rapidly progressed. As seen by the Deed, page xxxx the land
it was built on was originally owned by Daniel Lewis. one
of the original Louisvile settlers, and sold to the Commissioners by Eliott and John D. Thomas. who owned it at the
time of sale, for a town site.
An early settler of Clayton was Captain S. Porter. an
Indian trader. One of his daughters married Chillie McIntosh.
son of General William McIntosh, the famous Creek Indian
chief. When the Indians were moved to Indian Territory
Reservation, Captain Porter and family accompanied them.
Just a few years ago his grandson visited Barbour County.
T h e Porter property was purchased by members of the
Fenn family a t Clayton. Calvin Fenn, prominent Clayton citizen, was the great grandson of Mark MTilliams,one of the first
settlers of the county a t the village of Eufaula.
In 1838-39 a railroad was constructed from Iola. Florida.
(58 miles) to St. Joseph on St. Joseph's Bay. A Mr. John
Fountaine of Columbus. Georgia, was president of this, road,
which was built by his negro slaves. T h e object of its
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building was to reach deep n-ater, whereby ships could coine
up to the docks. As it was, tugs and rafts had to convey from
Appalachicola to deep water in East Pass.
This Road was successful mainly through the iilfluence
and efforts of Mr. Hunter 1~110also had been the leading factor in the Indian movement matter. His grandson, John Linguard Hunter Hoole, son of Bertram and Viola Hunter
Hoole, was one of the outstanding lieutenants of the Confederate Army, and his family has figured in all the later history
of the County. The general names of all the creeks and rivers
in the Chattahoochee Valley were given them by the whites,
on account of their domiciles along the various rivers and
creeks in Southeast Alabama, and NOT by the Indians, as
has been claimed.
Some of these beautiful names were Cowikee, Okonee,
Oketee, U-Fal-Ah, Chewalla, Choctahachee, Weelawnee. Jernegan was named for William Jernegan, a soldier among the
troops, who crossed the Chattahooc11e.e river in 1836. near the
present McDowell bridge( which supplanted the old covered
wagon bridge, famous in song and story.) He was stationed
as a sentinel a short distance from the Chetvalla creek-saw
a flock of 35 deer rise from out of the bramble and run loping
off. Venison was a staple diet and was dried and preserved
in those days. After the troops captured the Indians and
their chief, Tustenuggee (Billie BOIVLegs) he, the chief, stated
that he was watching from the top of a poplar tree, ,at the
creek and demanded the venison he claimed the soldiers had
stolen, claiming the deer as Indian property.
It is said that the scene on the ships a t anchor a t Apalachicola, with their cargo of Indians from Barbour County, was
pathetic. The savages were awed a t the spread sails, and
uttered doleful lamentations, fearing they were being taken
on the "big waters" to be drowned
After the removal of the Creek Indains, the development
\\;as as if by magic. (They were carried via New Orleans.)
INDIAN TRAILS AND MOUNDS
Many Indain villages. sites a i d Indain mounds in Barbour
County still survive, giving evidence of the life previous to the
white settlement.
Along the banks of the Chattahoochee river and its tributary streams? were the Lower Creek Indians, and the records
of the County show much of the troubles of the ~vhites11-ith
these Indians in 1836.
At a little Indian tonrn. three miles northeast of Eufaula
zt "St. Frances'' the people were armed, all work suspended
and the women and children kept in the stockade.
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This stockade was built on what is no\\- H a n d o l ~ hstreet.
~
on the lot afterwards owned for many years by ~ n < h o nand
later Edward Stom-.
An authentic story is told of how ail 11-)-ear-oltl boy, following his mother, who was fleeing with her small boy in her
arms-was almost in the grasp of the India11 pursuing heras she ran across a deep ravine (just belolv where the Compress now is) it1 an effort to reach the stockade. Close behind
her the boy picked up a large rock, threw it directly a t the
Indian, felling him into the ravine and the mother and children, just did have tmie to reach the stockade and rush in before the Indains caught up with them.
At this old St. Francis site, there are numerous mounds,
which have been evacuated and many relics secured.
On the Shorter river plantation, three miles from Eufaula,
there were four mounds, from which Eli S. Shorter, Jon C.
Thomas and J . H. G. Martin, as young lads, in the early fifties,
dug out hundreds of arrows? flints, rocks and bushel sacks
full of marbles of every conceivable kind, and it was the delight of these three boys; and also after they became men with
families, to spend Sunday afternoons, strolling over the old
grounds, all three of them students of Indian Lore.
Some of the valuable books they were wont to present
each other in later life are still in the possession of this writer.
In the lo~verpart of the County along the creeks are also
many mounds. Along a trail that led from Uchee Shoals in
Russel County near Columbus, Georgia, down the river, near
Baker Hill, fifteen rnies below Eufaula and 11 miles from
Eufaula on the Clayton road is the remains of mounds a t the
Indian village "Boak," where a sick Indian saved the life of
several whites because, he said, "The Great Spirit saicl I get
well, if I no kill white man." Between Louisville and Hobby's
Mill at the "Cape1 place," two miles east of Pratt's station. and
a t the Norton place, near Clayton, there are the remains of
many mounds.
When the ~ n d i a n swere being collected 1))- Go\-erilment
soldiers. to be carried to the boat to carry them clol\-n the river
to Appalachicola. Florida. and from there to the Reservations.
a young Indian girl I\-as dropped by the squaw carrj-ing her
n her back, and she was found on the hillside, ~ r h e r ethe Indians had filed down to the wharf to embark.
She'u-as taken in and cared for bj- a family tlan~etlRobinson, who named her Ailsie. She grew up, married a negro.
reared a large family and was for a lifetime a cornpetellt and
worthy servant a nurse employed by- the best families.
Her modest but picturesque home on Raildolph street,
built in the white resident section, being deeded to her bv Mrs.
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Robinson, who reared her. Her descendants are now respected
colored citizens of the County.
THE CALL OF BLOOD
I t is a sequel to fact ,that in 1876, when a tribe of wandering
lndians did come back to this sectioil and pitched their tepees
in ' Bell's Grove" and among them were several of those sent
t o Indian Territory long years before who had come back to
visit their old hunting grounds and that is how the Call of Blood
was written for it is a true story.
It was a damp, cloudy day in early February, when a heavy
mist hung over the Chattahoochee river, where it divides the
states of Georgia and Alabama-and as a crude canoe drifted
down the stream to a band where a big creek (Chewalla) empties into the river the four men who sat in the canoe, letting their
paddles drag, in the water, Mark Willams suddenly cried out
"look" as he spied the great bluff towering high above the
clear water (now muddy red, from long years of cultivation of
the land through which it flows)-that
reflected the mossy
hanks and bare limbs of the trees that grew frorn under the
bluff.
t
Mark Williams were John DeLochiou
In the b ~ a with
Tho~nas.hero of the W a r of 1812 a t New Orleans under General Coffee, a veteran of the war of 1812, William Ledbetter,
Iqoycl Lee and the speaker's young son, Floyd Williams.
These men were enroute to Marianna, Florida, having
journeyed from South Carolina.
As they looked on the high bluff, a desire to explore above
it seized them and soon the canoe was run ashore and landed
and the party climbed the bluff, to find a beautiful level plateau
and a number of Indian tepees. T h e Indains greeted them
kindry. but shyly. The result of this landing was that, three
weeks later! the families of these men were brought from
their immigrant camp, eight miles up the river on the Georgia
side, and building of homes began, the former plan to go to
Florida, having been abandoned.
A year went by, the association between the Iiidiails was
peaceable but not intimate.
One day several of the settlers sat outside the door of their
nelvly built cabins-a
young Indian girl strolled to the edge
of the high bluff, and as she stood looking far off a t the Georgia
forest across the river that stretched to the eastern horizon,
Ogo, a young Inclain brave. rushed up to her. ant1 snatching
her from the slippery edge of the bluff. esclaimed "U-Fall-Ah."
H e had learned some words of the white man's language
during the months he had listened to their talk. T o him the
had caught the meaning of "fall"
girl was "you"-LT-He
and as the Indian always annexes "AH" to every exclamation,
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he gave utterance to a ~vordthat caught the ears of the whites
and its euphoily, appealed to th ein .so inuch t ha t right then
and there, a t the suggestioil of J oh11 DeLocl~iouThomas, the
settlement was named Eufaula.
Not far away Filoycl Williains, the youilg son of the first
settler stood-and
the l~eautyand grace of the lildian inaidea
so attracted his attelltioil that for days he hung around her
father's tepee, until one morning as she was carring faggots
to light a fire under the great rocks that held the savory venison being roasted by the Indain womeil-he boldlyy approached and taking them fro111 her said, "Let me help YOU." She
looked shyly at him, blushed and handed the pieces to him.
That was the beginning of our story. Never was there sweeter
w o o i n v e v e r y evening brought him to her side-do\vn
by
the spring, under the bluff, they sat together. H e taught her
his ianguage, and she taught him hers. Her name was "Star
Eye" and the light that shone in the limped depths of her
eves was very like unto, the bewitching starlight that is ever
"the Light O7Love."
T h e day that Ogo had stlatched her from the dailger of
falling over the bluff and the village had been named "Eufaula"
t h e settlers had named her Eufaula, also.
Ogo had heen her lover from youth, until Floyd Williaills
had taken her in his arms ailtl said "Star Eye" you are mine"
and she lifted her little l ~ r o ~ vhantl
n
to caress liis cheek and
nestled closer to him.
Behind the tall trees that grew near the mouth of the
creeks where they had ~vanderedand were so engrossed in
their learning of "Love's L'esson," in all its fullness and sweetness that they failed to see Ogo as he stood with clinched
hands and frowning face as he watched what showed him
that Floyd had completely won "Star Eye," and the savage
in him was thoroughly aroused and as he strode away into
the forest, he planned in his heart diabolical revenge.
Spring time came. Floyd was busy choppiilg down trees to
clear land his father was preparing t o plant. Star Eye would
slip away from the Indians and sit for hours watching him
tvork.
The afternoon 11-as \I-aning and as the tree she was cutting
fell to the ground ,one of the projecting limbs struck his
shoulder, he reeled over iilsensil~le.when Star Eye saw that he
was badly hurt she rushed \%-ildl>to the settlers' cabins for help.
Ogo was secreted in the bush and was in the act of striking
Floyd a deadly blow when Star Eye flelv back alld threlb- herself over Sloyd as he la>-prostrate. "Go? go," she cried. Ogo
seized her roughly and said "I kill him, you take my Star
Eye. I hate pale face. H e take Star Eye away Ogo." By this
time four of the white women arrived and helped lift ~ l o ~ d
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and carry him to his father's cabin. Ogo eili-aged, sounded
the war ~vhoopand instailtly the warriors gathered a i d began
their war dance. full force. Star Eye fell clown on her face
before the Iiltlian wonlei1 feigning death. They threw a blanlcet over her and, leaving her, joined ill the war dance. She
lay there ~ultilshe saw Floyd approaching.
After he had been revived by the white women, he had
rushed, in sezrch of her-taking
her by the hand he said,
"Come," ancl they fled to the ~vater'sedge, soon unloosed the
moored canoe. jurnped in and rapidly rowed upstream toward
Columl~us.Georgia, Star Eye doing nlost of the paddling, as
Floyd was too badly nlaiilled to hell) much.
Night came on and by moonlight they hurried, fearful of
being overtaken by the Indians on the war path. Daylight
came and they kept on until late evening of the second day
they landed-and
leading the shrinking, frightened maiden
11y the hand, Floyd sought a Justice of the Peace. Curious
crowds of passers-by stopped to see the Judge call in two witnesses. Very tenderly he drew her into his protecting arms,
as the grey-haired oltl Judge pronounced them l~usbandand
wife.
Star Eye looked up illto F~oJ-d'sface ailcl said. "Star Eye
go be white lady." Flovd was without even a hat aild the
strangely inated paii- created a sensation, as they went hand
in hand clowil Broad. street.
In a coilfection store, near by, a kind-hearted clerk, \vhs
saw their plight, had given them lunch.
Floyd's uncle and aunt resided a few miles domil the
river. not far from the Georgia camp from which the South
Carolina settlers had left when they moved to the village
they named Eufaule-and it was micl afternooil the day they
!eft the canoe amain and v~endingtheir way through the woods
to the olcl timeb"rai1 fence" that surrounded the cow pasture,
they climbed over-Uncle
Charlie. clothed in home-made
overalls, was grinding his axe near the back door-Aunt
Martha was "pipping" a hen on the door step when she spied
the pair and cried, out to her spouse! "Las honey. look, if it
ain't Floyd and an Iildiail gal with him." The axe fell to
the grouild ailtl the hen flew a\\-a?-. as the rllstic old couple
went to meet the younger ones. They greeted 110th cordially
211d Floyd tells them the stoiy of their flight and the Eufaula
settleinent- their marriage and all the terrors of their escape.
Martha. who had been born with more than a balailcecl allo11-ance of sentiment in her make-up. and who had
l~eendenied inotherhood. found genuine joy in mothering the
young Indian girl. and soon learned to lore her r e r y much.
Floyd was glad t o accept Uncle Charles' offer to make
him his farm foreman, ancl the year that followed was a 1-ery
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happy one for the four. kl hell one summer night, when the
earth \vas wrapped in a dreatll of bliss-while the moon hung
low and the mocking bird it1 the Cape Jasamine tree. trilled,
until his throat almost bursted-"Star
Eye" went drifting out
across the bar and her spirit flew back to the mystic beginning
-leaving Floyd's heart broken, with a tiny babe in his arms.
They called her "Star" for her mother and she grew to
beautiful woinanhood. At the old historic college on the
high hill that overlooks the rolling Chattahoochee. she was
educated and graduated with honors. Her classmates, Daisy,
Laurie, Annie Laurie and Edna, loved her because she was
the fairest among them.
Floyd Williams hail succeeded financially and had. with
his father, to whom he returned, built a lovely home on the
bluff, near the spot where he first saw; her mother, Star Eye,
and his love for his daughter, whom he had reared without 2
mother's love and care, after Aunt Martha had been laid to
beneath the tangle of honeysuckle vines-was
the tenderest
and deepest.
Twenty years had passed since her birth-the
tribe of
Iilclians to whom her mother belonged had long ago been
sent to the U. S. Reservatioil in Indian Territory (now Okla11on1a)-but one day as Star rocked or1 the porch of her home,
an Indian Squaw, with a pappoose on her back, came in at
the gate, and as she reached the steps, laid down her bundle.
of baskets and beads. Star was strangely interested in her
and after buying a basket and string of beads, entered into
conversation with her. She said, "I am of a wandering hand
of Indians camped about a mile from here in a grove where the
high bluff ends and a broad fiield stretches from the F o v e to
the river bank."
As Star and her father sat a t dinner she said to him,
"Father, I had a visitor this morning-an Indian 1~01nai-1with
a little brown skinned baby tied to her back. She told me thax
there was an Indian cainp in Bell's Grove." Won't you carry
me there to see these strange people?"
Floyd's 1:oice trembled and he was nervous and distraught
as he falteringly said: "Indians are treacherous. filthy and
dangerous. I would rather not take you to see them." Oh
please do. father, she tearfully entreated. H e had never denied
her ally request. and finally with great reluctance ant1 sore
misgivings. he consented. H e was a bus\- man. but promised
to carry her the next aftert~oon.which &as S ~ ~ n t l a y .
Star" was all eagerness to be off as soon as dinner was
over. Despite his reluctance to carrying the daughter. whom
he idolized, to see a race of people whom he dreaded t o have
her know anything of, he kept his promise to her and he
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could not shake off a strange eagerness that overtook him
also, a s he approached the camp.
Reaching there they found cro~vds of citizeiis whose
curiosity had brought then1 to see the Indians-corning
and
going. While he stoppet1 to pass a few words ~ v i t ha friend
11-ho greeted hiin, Star Eye crept near the edge of one of the
tepees and suddellly a ~vrinkledold Iildian wornail took her
by the hand, looked close into her eyes, exclaiining, "Mine
Star Eye," and quickly drew her into the tepee.
Star was strailgely drawn to this old woman, who l~urridly
told her the story of the Iildan girl's marriage to Floyd Williams and said, "She was mine and you are my grand daughter." Peeping out of the tepee she saw Floyd as he talked
to the white visitors and ~ v h e nshe saw him start with fear
when he foulltl that Star was not beside him, she put her
finger to her lips aild said, "No tell him, come back here
t o i n g ~ t . I will tell you all." Star answered, "Yes I'll come,"
and joined her father, inerely saying, "How interesting the
l ~ldiansare, father."
A s they sat together in' the twilight, she asked him numerous questions, some of which he answered. others which
11e evaded,
Next morning- when he called a t Star's door to awaken
her. as was his usual custom, there was no response to his
rap and opeaiilg the door he found that she Isas goneIntuitively. he knew where. Rushing like 111a(l to the camp,
11e found that the Indians had pulled down their tepees during
the night ancl were far on their way. He line\\: that the
"Call of Blood'' had lured Star and that she hat1 gone with
the old grandmother, whom he had recognized.
Heart broken and humiliated, he sought the wandering
band for months? found them hundreds of miles away, but
Star and the old grandmother were not with them. The old
woman had been shrewd enough to leave the other Indains
and, by railway. had reachecl a hiding place in the Far West.
Time went on and she ancl Star joined another tribe and
soon she became a teacher of Indian children. A young
&fissionary. Willialn Ray. daily- visited her at school and it
1vas not long before her beaut?- and charm ~ v o nhis heart. and
his integrity v-on hers. Often she told him of her girlhood
home in the historic old town on the Chattahoochee river. that
owed its existence to her .iraildpareilts both 11-hiteaiicl Intlain.
She wore the Indian dress no~v-andshe and her grandmother
resided in a little cal)in on the Iildiatl Reser~-ation.The trading
post was not far away and one day, when an 1ndai11 ljoy
l~roughtsome purchases from the Post, as she unwrapped
the paper around them she read, "The Eufaula Kerns," and
her heart almost stopped beating. and she hegall eagerly
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reading. On the first page she saw. "Pioneer Citizen Dies. :
Floyd i4jilliams Buried in Old Falllily Ceinetery Today Beside
His Zndiail JVTife.?'
She had saved the money the Government had paiil her
for teaching and she immediately took a train to carry her
back to Alabama. When she stepped off the train that stopped
on the Georgia side of the river near Georgetown, Georgia,
the old carriage that had 1,een the most elegant thing in the
town happened to be a t the station, and the old darky driver,
Eugene recognizecl Star. Openiilg the carriage door he bade
her step in. Quickly he drove her over the river to the old
cemetery and she spent an hour kneeling beside the grave of
her unknown mother and dearly 1)eloved father.
The next day she returned to the West and soon after in
a littie chapel where William Ray preached, near her school,
she gave her heart and hand to him in marriage.
Another year went by. the old grandmother passed on tc
the "happy hunting groullds" of her race-the Indian children
were beginning to be taught in the schools of the whites and
the ~vanlngof the needs etnphasizecl another "Call of Blood,"
back to the white father's home and people-and the wedded
pair came back to the old home on the bluff-the first residence
( i t still sands) that was l~uilt11y Mark and Floyd Williams-.
and in the gathering twilight of inally a sutllmer evening passers
along the bluff would see theill sitting on the exact spot, where
Ogo "snatched Star Eye from the edge of the bluff as she was
about to fall.
Indian Chief Tustennuggee. known as Billy Bow Legs.
was an Indian of superior ability. H e was a born trader and
when he reacled Florida. it was said of him, "he sold many
skins ancl pelts and was shrewd in his bargaining."
H e was never accused of being in any way unfair and he
demanded fair treatment from others.
H e was quiet, dignified and eager to imitate the white
man, in anything except attracting attention. I t is related that
despite the dispute. with the chief of another tribe in Barbour
couily, when the a r g ~ ~ m e.was
n t at its heat of the discussion was
at its heat1 he said. "1 go, ant1 11-ith a look of disgust on his
face. he walked out.
The Indain was not coi~sideredan exile.
Suspicious of the white mail always. supposing that he
~vantedsomething from the Intlian, he could never fully underit is
stand. however. what it was the white man wanted-and
a noteworthy fact that the Indian, cruel as he was at times,
it was solely because he believed that he had a grudge against
the pale face, for taking the lands the Indian deemed Ivere
his ow-n by right of first possession.
.
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The Indian was not as. what we call a heathen, for he
l~elievedin th- "Great Spirit" as directing the acts of man.
H e was in a way superstitious, and he believed in all the
traditions.
His religion was strict obedience to the laws of the "Great
spirit" handed dowil to him.
The Creek Nations were the greatest traders of all the
tribes in the South.
TUSTUNUGGEE--HOG0 "BILL BOWLEGS''
When 011 his way, leaving the state, this warrior stopped a t
Tuscaloosa, and addressed the State Legislature, and his
white audience ~ v i t hsuch dignity and eloquence that he left
an almost unexplainable impression.
H e said "I come brothers to see the great house of
Alabama and the men that make the laws and to say farewell,
in brotherly kindness, hefore I go to the Far West, where
my people are now going. We leave behind our good will
to the white people of Alal~arna~ v h o1)uild great houses. ancl
to the men who make laws. I say farewell to the wise men
and to \+ish them peace ant1 hap1<i~inessin the country which
my forefathers owner1 "
Moore states in his history that "the entire river banks
of Alabama and Southwest Georgia are thicklv dotted with
Indian mounds and the trail of the Retl Man is so definitely
marked that his greatness can never he ol~literated.
THE LAST INDIAN BATTLE IN ALABAMA
Fought March 25th, 1837
Battle of Pea River Swamp, .in which Settlers
Ehgaged Creeks, With Two Killed and Twentyfive Wounded. It Was the Result of Trouble,
long brewing.
On March 225th. 1837. about three miles from Hobby's
bridge on Pea River. between Troy and Louisville, the last
battle between the white settlers and Indains was fought.
While it was not the largest battle, it was one of the three
greatest battles ever fought in Alabama. These three mere:
The capture of the Indian town of Maubila. or Desota. in
1850: tha capture of Fort Mims in northern Baldwin County
in 1813: and the battle of Horse Shoe Rend, in Tallapoosa.
a few months later.
In the Chattahoochee Valley in 1936. troul~lebroke out
on account of the encroachments of the ~vhites.ancl the discontent of the Indians a t these encroachments. and the pro-
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posal of the U. S. Government to transport them to the
western rnclain reservations.
The Creeks, al~vaysmore or less warlike. formed lines
along the Alabama and Georgia sides of the Chattahoochee
river and in the spring of 1836, again went on the warpath.
They burned homes, p~lferedthe settlers homes, and throughout all that section anxiety and dread enveloped the forest,
to the extent that fear stalked broadcast.
Near the villages of Seale and Pittsvielv. the stagecoach
had been attacked and several persons killed. Near Crawford.
in Russell county today can still be seen the tombs of several
killed by the Indians. I n a cemetery near Three Notch and
Union springs there are a number of the tombs of settlers
killed.
Homes of settlers in Glenville. which was then Barbour.
but now Russell County. mere burned. not even a cabin left
in the whole settlement.
The town of Glenville was named for Rev. James Elizabeth
Glenn. Algernon Sidney Glenn, who a t 80 years of age, told
the following story to hfs relative. Dr. James M. Glenn : :
"After telling of the settling of Glenville. the. troubles
arising betwen the Indains and ~vhites. in May. 1836. his
father moved his family to Geol-gia. after l ~ e i n g\vanled by a
friendly Indian. William Flouriloy was killed l,et~veen Seale
and Pittsview. the stage coach was attacked and homes in
Glenville were burned. The oltl gentlenlan known far and
wide as 'Capt. Buck Glenn' told of the family. returning to
Glenville in October, 1336."
"After the trouble hegall. said he. "the go\-ernor sent
troops to restore order. but upon returning to Glenville. we
found everything bnrned. so me rebuilt our house in the same
spot, almost directly across the road from. the old ~ e ' t h o d i s t
church. and our second house was surrounded hy split logs
set on end 1vit11 portholes through which to shoot. if we were
attacked again."
Battle of Pea River
Were you in any of the battles with the marauding
Indians. h e w a s asked. "Yes. I was in the army as a member
of the Barbour Rangers from Christmas, 1836. to March 25th.
1837, after the last battle was fought in Pea river swamp. I
was less than 20 years of age and my older brother. Massillon.
was a guide on the staff of Gen. Wingfield Scott who with
General Jessup came to Alabama in connection with- the
Indian troubles."
The older brother of Mr. Glenn was one of the men who
helped to frame a constitution for the state of Alabama
during the perilous days of Reconstruction and had three or
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four grandsons in the world war, one of them dying while in
service.
Mr. Glenn continued: '"I'he U. S. troops who were sent
to the scene of the trouble never had a battle with the Indians,
although Gen. Jessup, with the forces, camped for a while
between (Seale and Pittsview of today) and also at Creek
Stand, Alabama, ill Macon County. All the fighting was
done by volunteers.
"In the fighting in Pea river swamp, there was a volunteer company from Franklin County, Georgia, and the Barbour Rangers, to which I belonged.
"The captain of the Barbour Rangers was William Wellborn ; First Lieutenant. Patterson ; Second Lieutenant, Cowan.
Lieutenant Patterson was killed in the fight with the Indians
at Martin's Creek near Midway in Bullock County and Lieutenant Cowan lost an arm there. Both were from Eufaula.
I was not in that fight. There were only a few men iu it.
The Indians, who were in ambush. waited until our men were
in the open field and then opened fire upon them. After
this the Indians withclrew froin Pea river.
C
In pursuing them. we camped at Feagan's grove in
front of Col. Tames Feagan's home in the northern adge of
Midway. In following the Indians we tracked them by
burned houses. At length we came to a house. ~ d ~ iwas
c l ~still
l~urningand we knew that the Indians were near. They were
in the Pea rider swamp above Hobdy's hridge. and hefore we
attacked them they had already defeated a larger force of
whites than we had.
"The swamp was inui~daterll ~ yhigh water and Irldians
were encamped on some high ground between the river and
a large lagoon, that being the only high ground.
''4 force of about 50 citizens was sent to cut tl~enloff.
These were attacked by the Indians and driven 11ack.
"Hearing the fighting, we dashed up. W e were fighting
Indian fashion from behind trees. hushes and other shelter.
The Indians tried to flank us. so our line was extended from
t h e river to the lagoon. W e were in three hours and fifty-two
minutes." 'You were the first man to kill an Indian, were
you not?' he was asked. "No not the first. M$ first shot
was too far and I made a miss. My second shot was when I
saw the water shaking near a bush and an Indian mas behind
it. I fired a t him and he fell dead.
6C
Young Wellborn, about my age. and a son of Capt.
Welborn, our commander. was standing near me. standing
behind a small poplar tree. and when he saw the result
of my shot he ~~nthoughtedly
exposed himself a moment
as h e exclaimed, "Buck Glenn has killed an Indian." The
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next instant a bullet struck him in the head ancl he fell four
feet from me writhinq in death
"I was down behind a palmetto bush and was not struck,
though the bullets cut the limb of the trees above my head. I
got one shot a t the Indain who had shot young Wellborn.
H e was well concealed l~ehincla large poplar allout fifty yards
away. Some also saw him and shot a t him making him turn
like a squirrel around a tree. I could see only his arm, b u t
fired at that hoping to cripple him a t least. He immediately
disappeared from sight and I saw him no more.
"As long as my firing was going on I got along very well,
but when there was a lull it was not very pleasant. Young
Wellborn was not killed outright. When everything else
was quiet, I could see the brave young fellow writhing in
the agony of death and hear his groans as he lay there, almost
right a t me and I could feel that I would just allout as soon
be a t home.
"Each of us had been supplied with 24 cartridges and
after a while our ammunition was almost exhausted. Our
officers knew that if we attempted to retreat we would be
attacked by the Indians and overwheln~eclso they decided t o
charge the camp. My older hrother, Mack. was also in the
fight and he was? hit on the knee 11y a spent 11all as we made
the charge. About a half dozen of 11s volunteers went right.
through the I ~ l d i a n camp. W e foul1tl the fires bui-ning
where they had been making i~ulletsand found pewter plates
being melted for the purpose. as they had run out of lead.
LC
Some of the Indains stood their ground hravely. A
man from near Franklin County. Georgia. and I were together
An Indian shot him in the arm ancl stood squarely. Another
nf our men shot the Indian clown as he stood. "I killed one
Indian as \ve went through the lagoon and trietl to secure
his gun, hut coulil not on account of the depth of the water.
Rllt I secured his shot pouch. containing pewter 1,ullets. I n
coming out of the fight m.iT pants were as 1,loody as if we
had been killing hogs.
"We had tnro men killed and about t~venty-fivewounded.
T h e Indians
were routed and we received - honorable dis.
charges.
Being asked what kind of
were used he replied:
"Flint lock muskets and they were very serviceable guns,
shooting well. Each of us had 24 cartridges, each of which
was wrapped in stiff paper. and consisted of a charge of
powder. and three buckshot. W e hit off the lower end of
i h e cartridge, poured powder from it into the 'pan' under
the hammer. Sparks fell illto the powder in the pan and
the fire, passing through a small hole into the barrel. fired
the gun. I t was all done in a flash. I went to the Indian
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I hat1 killed in the lagoon. and found a hole had heen knocked
in lliin. at least an inch in diameter. "However," he said smilingly, "after shooting a while, my shoulder was so sore froin
the kicking back of the gun that I could scarcely use my
arm. The powder in the pan also had a way of flashing
out, which was not very pleasant. The day of the Pea river
fight. was the 25th of March, and there was a strong wind
1)lo.iving from the northwest, and I lost all my eye brolvs and
eye lashes by the flashing and l ~ l o ~ v i nback
g
of the powder
in the pan of my gun."
The Indains who were driven out of Pea river swain11
u7ere on their way to Florida to join the Seminoles, among
rvl~omwere already Inany of other Creeks from Alahama and
while many persons in Alabama do not kilow it. Osceola
hin~self. the noted chief of the Seminoles in Florida, was
himself, having been 11orn in Alabama on the Euhhaupee
(U-Fowhy) creek some say. quite close to the present Clugh's
Station on the Western railroad, near Chehaw, on the same
creek. He ~ v a shalf white, and his English name was Billy
Powell.
The preseilt writer is personally acquainted with some
of his great granddaughters. They are in Monroe - County,
Ala1,aina. near the Baldwin County line. The writer also has
heen a guest in the hotne of two of the great granddaughters
of the notecl Creek chief. William weatherford, or the "Red
Eagle" as he is often called.
A
JAMES M. GLENN.
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PART I1
Chlapter Seven
Hotels
'
The first hotel in Barhour County was the "Tavern.,"
built by Mark Williams at Eufaula in 1827, for a residence,
but used to accomodate the few travelers who passed through
that section.
During the time that Eufaula was temporarily called
"Irwinton" (changed back to its original name "Eufaula"
in 1842.) I t was the first house, other than log cabins, built
in the newly settled village of Eufaula. and stands today.
owned and occupied by Mrs. T. A. Mashburn. I t has been
kept. in perfect repair through the years. always painted the
original color first used. I t is on Riverside drive. overlooking
the Chattahoochee river, where Broad street turns to the
bluff.
The next hotel was built on corner of Broad and Livingston streets, run by a man named Moore, and known as the
"Howard House."
In the next ten years, the Central hotel corner of Broad
and Eufaula street was built. I t was managed by the following
parties consecutively: J. D. Billings, S.Stuberfield. B. Bernstein. during the seventies. During the eighties. Bernstein
sontinued and in the nineties J. H. Keho was manager, until
the building was burned,.and rebuilt by W. N. and J. H.
Reeves and named "The Arlington." which was run by E. B.
Freeman. The National Hotel was built bv J. L. Ross and
Robert Moulthrop, and run by Mrs. W. H. Locke with E. B.
Freeman (who became "Mine Host*' of the South as the
years passed, as its first clerk.
T h e old "Chewalla House," corner of Broad and Orange
streets, was run by A. J. Riddle for many years, later changed
to the "St. Julien.' It had as manaFers, G. T.Long, who
also m ~ n a g e dthe National a long time. For a long time
Mrs. Ida Ross ran the National and after being closed for some
time, was run 8 years by Mrs. W. C. Standifer.
Late years it has been used only as a store house, the
upper stories and the lo~verstory as hank offices. Now it is
the New National owned by the Dean Estate and run by J. M.
Cade.
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'
The St. Julien, changed to the "New St. Julien," was
run by the owner, Col. G. L. Comer for ten years. with different managers in charge. Among them ~ o b e r tBrannon,
tvho had been clerk many years, and Thomas Appling, also
clerk, previously.
The building was torn' away. when sold to the United
States Government, the site used for the fine Post Office
now serving Eufaula and surrounding territory
The old "Finnerty House" on Broad street, now used
as a hotel was known for many years as the "Evans House."
afterwards run by J. K. Sams. and now by Charles Ham.
Mr. E. B. F'reeman came to Eufaula from Columbia,
Alabama. in 1880 and to him is due the reputation of Eufaula
as "the best hotel town in the South." At various times, he
managed every first class hotel in the town. Coming a s
hotel clerk at the age of 18, in a few years he was manager
of the "St. Julien, "Arlington," "New St. Juli en," Eufaula,
and after establishing such enviable reputation here, he was
even more distinguished, and successful in careers a t the
follolving other hotels : "Anniston (Ala.) Inn. the "Caldwell,"
Birmingham, "Exchange" and "Windsor," Montgomery,
"Dawson Inn." Dawson. Ga, then back to Birmingham t o
manage the "Hillsman," returning from Dawson to again
manage the "Bluff City Inn. Eufaula, which was the original
Central Hotel. H e managed this hotel until his death, Sept.
3. 1919. when his mantle fell on his two sons, Edward B.,
Jr., and Walter Sc, who like himself. had grown up in the
hotel business, assumed control anct made their hotel and
the name "Freeman," the first word in hostelry
They knew the business. loved it and were ambitious
to keep it at the high point of perfection their father had
a1~ i r a y smaintained.
The name "Freeman" is kno\kV11by ever>- traveling man
in the country and for fifty years "Freeman's Hotel" has
been the one sought by them for their stop over resting
place. The traveling public became the family's warm,
personal friends and their courteous accommodatin.g service
gave to them an enviable reputation as "mine hoste."
About four years ago Freeman Brothers sold out their
hotel interests to Dr. J. I,. Houston and retired.
Mr. Eclwarcl B. Freeman went into the insurance business
as special agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Company
and Mr. Walter S. Freeman, into the drug business, establishing the Eufaula Drug Company .
By their integrity and personafity. both are making good
in their new ventures and are first among Barbour County's
most valuable citizens.
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WHEELER HOUSE
Clayton, Alabama
T h e Eufaula, Louisville, and Columbus and Midway
Nov. 25, '58. 35tf.
stages run to this House.
EATING SALOON
-ByB. A. THORN
The subscriber has opened an EATING SALOON on
the east side of the public square. one door below the Post
Office. Meals can be had at all hours of the day and night.
He intends to keep the best the country affords, together with
Fresh Oysters. H e wishes it particularly understood that
there is no Grocery attached to this Saloon. B. A. THORN.
Clayton. Heb. 16, 1859.
45tf.
All records of the town of Clayton sho~vthat the priilcipal
hotel of pioneer days there was the Wheeler House, in the
fifties and long before the Eufaula. Louisville and Columbus
and Midway stage coaches ran to this house, which was one
nf their terminals.
For many long years, the "Hill House" was run by Mrs.
Hill and daughters, and was a fine place. Then came the
Enterprise Hotel, and now for nearly a half century, the
Fryer House has been known all over the country. I t was
run many years by. Miss Fryer, known to her friends and the
traveling public as "Miss Dump," and her hotel was always
"the best." Since her death. her brother has been proprietor.
and this hotel still maintains its popularity.
Louisville-The
hotels at Louisville are notahle. For
many years Mrs. Green was proprietor of the leading hotel.
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Chapter Eight
Insurance and Banks
INSURANCE
Insurance is a safe and wise protection against
death and disaster of any kind, and should be
a daily reflection throughout a lifetime.
The oldest insurance agency in Barbour County, possibly
one of the oldest of the three oldest in the state, is the Dean
Insurance Agency.
I t was established in 1870 by Capt. Leonard Yancey
Dean, a veteran of the W a r Between the States, who left
an arm on the battle field, when he came forth maimed after
that bitter struggle for home and the Southland.
Until about a year before his death, a t the age of 89, this
oldest agent, manager, wonderful business man and valuable,
l~elovedcitizen was actively engaged in this business, which
his executive ability and genial personality had made through
a period of over sixty years such a success as president of
the Dean Agency. which comprised over an hundred thousand
dollars worth of fire, accident. storm. burglar and life insurance, following the cyclone of 1919, when this Agency paid
out large sums on policies made demandable by these casualties.
As a tribute to Capt. Dean's remarkable record, as adjustor and representati\;e, he was the recipient of numerous
trophies for Gis long service with the various companies he
represented. Among these was a gold ~vatch fob, for 40
years' service with the Fidelity-Phoenix Insurance Company
and for 50 years with the same company, a beautiful clock.
Froin Liverpool, London and Globe Agency a gold match
case was given him in recognition of 60 years' service.
For a number of Pears. Cal~tainDean had associated with
him G. B. Geothus, the firm name being: Dean and Geothetls
and later his brother-in-law, E.K. Cargill, and in later years
his son. Leonard yancey Dean. Jr.
Before his death. he sold the business to Mr. John R.
Barr. one of the most capable and enthusiastic young business
men in the County. who is carrying on, under the same old
Dean programs and policies that have made the business so
successful. Mr. Barr's slogan is "Go forward, never halting"
and he is maintaining that strict business principal of "giving
perfect service."
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The Insurance l~usinessof Barbour County, is brim full
of interest and color and includes the flattering records of
other firms that ha\-e wrought the best and given luster to
the glow of insurance, ill all its various and numerous phases.
The E. Y. Dent insurance Co. had its inception and was
l>orn of the Insurance feature of the Eufaula Xational Bank,
with Mr. E. Y. Dent Manager of the Agencies. Its life l~egail
in 18- and after this Bank ceased business in 1901, Mr. Dent
continued the business, enlarging it. H e knolvs the Insurance
Business from every angle, and his record for ability, accuracy
and knowledge in general of Insurance has enabled him to
keep his Agency and Insurance business to a high standard
that has not only held him his old business, but brings new
daily. His slogan is "satisfaction" and he is holding fast
to it.
The Sparks Insurance Agency is not so old in years, but
is strong in every feature. I t was established by H. C. and
I,. A. Sparks, young inell who by inclomniable will, strict
integrity and ap-plication to business, have put their business
at the very top. Thev represent the best companies and
agencies ancl use the deallest business policies. As sellers
and dealers in the highest class Insurance they have used dignifiedt but attractive inethocls that have brought them bus iness and success.
BANKS
Gold, silver, currency and checks
Play their part in life's drama,
And the custodians of these, reflects
The finance problems of Alabama.
The name of the "Bridge Bank" was changed to the
"Young and Woods" Bank and finally was merged into the
Eufaula National Bank.
The first bank established in Barbour County was the
"Bridge Bank" in 1839 by Edward B. Young, who had come
to Eufaula fro111 New York, with his own capital. established
this bank after. John 15:. Pettit. Representative from Barbour
County had introduced a bill to establish a bank at Eufaula
had failed. Mr. Young's project was a success. and it 11-as
the only'bank in the County until John M.McNab, who had
heen in the C ~ u n t l for
- some time, and was wealthy, built the
fifty thousand dollar bank building still standing at the corner
of Broad and Randolph streets and opened a bailking business
under the name of "The Eastern Bank of Alabama. in 1859.
This was one of the four only banks then operating in Alabama. During the sixties he changed the name to '-The John
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McNab Bank," which it bore until it was closed by the
Hanover National Bank of Ne\v York March 31, 1891, after
Mr. McNab's death, when his son-in-law, Dr. W. N. Reeves,
was president. C. Rhodes was cashier from its opening to
its closing March 31, 1891.
The People's Bank. with quarters on Hart's Block" was
organized by Henry C. Hart, president. and A. A.. Walker,
cashier. I t was popular but after a few years run it .died
February 161 1869.
The Eufaula National Bank was the original "Bridge
Bank, second name Young and Woods. S. H. Dent, president,
and Edward B. Young, 11, cashier, took charge after name
was changed to "Eufaula National Bank." It did a . great
business for many years, but misfortunes came and it was also
one of the unfortunate banks) of the country to close in 1901.
The East National Bank was organized in 1886, capital
stock $100,000, by John P Foy and J. L. Pitts and closed its
doors July 1, 1929. It's closingg was a heavy b l o ~to the
business of this section. This bank was housed in the same
building built by John McKab for the Eastern Bank of Alabama, and the bank that bore his name. It was used for
banking purposes for nearly an hundred years. This banking
business was sold by J. L. Pitts to A. H. Merrill.
The Commercial National Bank was organized in 1895,
J. P. Foy, president, and C. P. Roberts. cashier. At his death
W. D. Flewellen was appointed cashier. When President J.
P. Foy died, his son, Humphrey Foy, succeeded him as president. The Commercial Bank closed its doors October, 1931.
T h e Bank of Eufaula was organized in 1906-$50,000
capital stock. W. L. Wild was president, G. L. Comer, vice
president : chairmen mere : George H. .Dent, N. W. Roberts ;
cashier, C. E. Boyd. and board of directors, G. L. Comer, G.
H. Dent, R. Moulthrop, C. L. McDowell, Jr., H. C. Hollemon,
C. A. Loche, W. S. Britt. I. Neil, W. W. Roberts. This bank
used the original E. B. Young and Eufaula National Bank
building T h e bank closed its doors.
The Eufaula Bank and Trust Company was organized in
1925 with H. L. King, president; Chauncey Sparks, vice
president, and R. C. Joiner as cashier.
Although the only bank it1 Eufaula, it handles the immense banking business satisfactorily and with success. L. Y.
I).eatl. I 11, President (Recently elected).
The Clayton Banking Company was organized in 1887
by T.R. Parish, Sr.. and has hacl many years of successful
business. The original directors were viz (to come later)
D. Grubbs. president: T. W.
The officials at present are 'I'
Parish. \?ice president : Thomas R Parish, cashier : directors,
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T. D. Grubbs, E. W. Norton, T. W. Parish, Tholnas K. Parish,
E. W. Parish.
The Citizens Bank of Claytoil was orgailized 11y J . J.
Winil and J. E. Meado~vs. The directors were Dr. W. H.
Wright, J. I,. Pitts, T. E. Pitts.
The Barbour Bank a t Louis\-ille was organized 11y M. C.
Bell, T. H. Blair and others.
The bank of Louisville was organized by Robert Flouriloy and Frank Pierce.
*
The Clio Banking Compaily opened for l~usinessAugust
5t11, 1905. The fouilders were J. D. Fuqua, president: B. I.
Jackson, cashier, ancl C. J. Stephens, assistant cashier. Capital
$5O,Om.
Some years later the Farmers' Bank was established a t
Clio with J. N. Stephens, president.
NOTES
BARBOUR COUNTY'S FIRST MANUFACTURING
ENTERPRISE
Barbour County's first manufacturing enterprise vras a
"Wool Factory," owlled ancl operated by Jonathan Thomas,
oile of the pioneer settlers. I t \\-as -located three-fourths of
a mile from the Barbour creek. near what is known as the
"Mile Branch," and from the large herds of sheep he raised,
he made the wool sheared into cloth ancl sold it far and near
. . . as it was the only "Wool Factory" in this section. H e has
several hunclred descendants. who are citizens of Barbour
County, scattered all over the County.
FIRST GAS PLANT
The first Gas Plant established in Southeast Alabama
was built in Barbour county in 1884. ownecl by Captain John
W. Tullis, progressive citizen, who afterwards, was president
cf the Eufaula Ltight and Power Company.
Mr. J. H. Hagerty was superintendent fo1- many years.
For some years the city of Eufaula rnunicipaly cnvned the
Light and Power Company, selling the plant to the Alabama
Power Company.
BARBOUR COUNTY'S FIRST AUTOMOBILE
The first autoinol~ilcever l ~ r o u g h tto Barbour County
was the-little "Oldsrnol~ileBuggy," in 1900, by Mr. James L.
Ross, who purchased it from a hlr. Da\-is a t Cuthbert, Georgia.
It created a sensation. \\-hen Mr. Ross drove do\\-n Sanford
street, just as the school childsell had bee11 tlismissed. and
they follo~ved the "\voilder." utter1)- astonished to witness
the fulfillment of Old
Shipman's prophesy that "Carriages without horses shall go."
Soon after this Mr. Ross bought a fine touring car? Dr.
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J. I3. Whitloclc l~oughta Chandler, Mrs. A. C. hlitchell and
Dr. J. M. Reeves. l ~ u y i n gfine cars of this make also. For
over a year these were the oilly cars in the County, until
Mr. J. A. Stricklailtl of Louisville. bought a "Max\vell" and
soon the little gasoline buggy that created such a sensatioil
evolvecl into I-rundl-eds and now thousantls of fine automobiles of every ~llake,pattern ailcl tlesigll desired are in use.
FIRST CIRCUS NOTES
The first circus that I-isited Uarbour Coullty \\?as thc
great "Kobinsoi~Circus." in 1854. I t created a sensatioi~ant1
~ v h e nthe parade marched through the streets of Eufaula,
ropes had to be stretched to hold back the crowds.
Old residents have told that the negi-oes swarmed from
huildreds of miles, and when daylight came the day of the
c;i-cus, the road between Eufaula and Clayton was alive with
a moving mass of humanity.
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Chapter Nine
Public Halls And Theatres
FIRST COURT HOUSE
The first Court House built at Clayton was in 1854 at a
cost of $9,695.
PUBLIC HALLS A N D THEATRES
In 1566, John Hart. wealthy pioneer citizen. had sold
his tnany slalaes prior to emancipation, and with the more
than $75,000 that they brought, he built Hart's Block, composed of ten stores, reaching froin the corner of Broad and
Eufaula streets in Eufaula, nearly to the corner of Barbour
and Eufaula streets Above the six middle stores of this
block, was the spacious hall or auditorium, used for all the
dances, balls, banquets, theatres or public gatherings for
many years.
The "Hart's Hall'' was opeiletl wit11 a play in which Alice
Oats, then in the hey day of her glory as a n actress. and its
historic walls held the secrets and the glories of long years,
all to g o up in flames, Nov. 24, 1904, when all of the block
except the one street and rooms above on the Broad street
corner, which stands today. as does the t ~ v olast stores near
Barbour street, small remains of the old "Hart Block."
Besides being used for theatrical purposes, it was the
place where all the Balls, Church fairs and social functions
of the corninuility drew great crowds t o make merry in the
old days.
When the fine old Shorter mansion on the bluff was torn
down, the superior material was used to build Shorter Opera
House on Broad street. I t was built by Kolb, Couric and
Hayes, a large xvarehouse and cotton firm. Messrs. Kolb and
Couric, being Shorter heirs. shared in the division of the large
estate of General Reuben C. Shorter.
Thisopera house was one of the finest in the South, with
its four handsome opera hoses. dressing rooms, and some of
the most elaborate scenery.
For a long periocl of years. this opera house was run by
Mr. P. H. Morris as manager. but its greatest glory was
during the years that Mr. Jake Stern was manager, when all
of the finest plays in the country played on its great stage,
11-it11 Prof. Van Houten's Orchestra in the pit, and after his
-
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death the E. B. Young and Whitlock Orchestra. The great
College Commencemeilt Concerts, by Prof. Van Houten were
given here, and one of the most memorable political gatherings
~vithinits walls was the county Democratic conreiltion that
met there in 1874.
When Rev. Sam Jones lectured there in 1895, the house
was crowded to everflowing and the religious demonstration
was one that will never be forgotten for soon after there was
a revival at the First Baptist Church, and many new converts
were added to the rolls of all the churches in the County.
Lawrence Barrett the great actor, played "Richileu" on
the stage and declared to Manager Stern that the scenery was
the most suitable to his great play that he had seen in any
theatre in all the country.
The old curtain is still on the walls of Carnegie Library
(a large part of it): preserved by the club women of the city,
given to them by Dr. J. B. Whitlock, when Whitlock-Foy
purchased the building. ~ ~ h i cwas
h burned. T h e next opera
house was built by the Eufaula Chautauqua (or Alabama
Chautauclua) and after about ten years was sold and bought
i i ~by the Dr. H. 34. Weedon estate, who held a inortgage
on it
During its life. it was used as an opera house, and so called.
after purchased by the Weedon estate.
I t seated fifteen hundred people, and was a motlern, first
class opera house and theatre. During its entire existence it
nras used for a motion picture theatre, and for all other theatrical purposes. For a time it was used by both the First Baptist
and First Methodist churches, while new church buildings
of these two demonimations were being erected.
I n 1924 the Eufaula High School Auditorium \\-as built,
a protentious building attached to the High School on Sanford
street, with a seating capacity of 80,
and since that time it
has been used for the city, theatre, or opera house. purposes.
It has beautiful, appropriate scenery for all occasions. and a
large orchestra pit and a gallery; also a grand pipe organ, and
is the home of the Concert Grand Mason and Hamlin piano
owned by the 3,Iusic Lovers Club of Eufaula and also the
several school pianos. and those of Mrs. T. G. Wilkinson used
with her splendid school orchestra of 40 pieces.
PICTURE THEATRES
The first moving picture theatre in Barbour County was
the "Pictorium" 011-ned and managed hj- Edward Black at
Eufaula and was in the store on Broacl street. known for
many years as the "'Shelly Jewelry store." It's life was short,
but soon came the Vaudette. the &k-mus-Uand various others,
until while manager of the Chautauqua Opera Houset Mr. J.
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M. Earr rail. for about three ?-ears. a splenditl motion picture
service that \\-as Eufaula's ant1 the surro~ui~diing
territor~-'s
greatest pleasure asset. H e sold out to a Mr. Jones froin
Florida. ~ ~ illh turn
c soltl the \'audette and Eufaula picturc
~11011~
1x-ivileges to Nr. AI. (:. Lee. and from that day until
nolv, Eufaula has 11atl the pleasure of the l~enefitsof the best
pictures releasetl, all iuodern ecluipment, and perfect service,
can gi\-c a t o ~ r t lant1 comlllunit>-. -4ftcr sho~ving several
years in the l~uildingin the National Hotel block. Mr. Lee
purchasetl fi-0111 the Jacol~Kainser estate. adjoining the old
Shorter build in^. two of the finest buildings on Broad street,
and co~lvertedt l ~ e i into
~ l a perfectly equipped, mocleril inotioi~
picture theatre, and has g-ken a "picture sho~v*'service that
callnot be excelled ai1y11-here,the large cities not excepted.
For many years. Mr. Lee has been clailnetl an esteemed,
valual~lecitizen of Eufaula. although he calls Cuthl~ert.Ceoroia, hoine. having there ant1 also at L)a\~son.Georgia. siillilar
fine ~ i c t u r e .theatres. run in coilnection with the Eufaula
Theatre. He spends ~ l ~ u ctime
h
in Eufaula, where he has
nlacle a !lost of I\-arnl frien(1s. He owns other real estate in
fiufaula. among 11-hich are four fine stores 011 Eufaula street,
situated in the oltl "I-Iart's l!lock." almost on the esact spot
where the old l~istoric"Hal-t's 1 Iall." Eufaula's first hall of
iA~n~usetnent
ancl theatre stood.
i<eceiltl>-he 1)urchasetl fro11113. F. Bsl)~-the fine building
next to the I-'. 0. 11-hicl~he has trailsfori~lecl into the "Rex"
Theatre. air conditioned. runt1 fully equipped with opera upholsteretl chairs. giving to the public the same fine service that
the "I,ee" theatre has for so many years. The "Res." will
s h o ~ va different run of pict~uresfrom that of the "Lee," both
,si~-ingthe 1-el-)-best released 1))- the best filming companies.
The Lee Theatre under the management of Mr. J . R.
Ivey. x-it11 i\lrs. h e ? - in the ticket office. and ticket taker and
other assistants. Mr. ant1 Mrs. Hester. blrs. J. L. Barbaree and
h4rs. I?. T. Blot1e~-.is giving a ser\-icethat call on1~-11e illustratetl 11y the one ~vortl-Perfect. The 10111)~ of the theatre is a
1,eautiful. c o s ~place
to linger ant1 the pictures l~eingsho11-11to
the auctience l~riil:,. 1)leasurc. of higher education. bellefits oi
travel. informatioi~.inclutletl in the nen-s reels that is most
instructi~-e.and the news. that is full of all the high lights
of the times. to say notl~ingoi the l~eautifulpictures that
broilg forth I-omance. 11istor~and she\\- human life in all its
intricacies. The joy and relaxation found in these theatres
are among the greatest assets to this section of Barbour
County.
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HART'S BLOCK GOES UP I N SMOKE
From the Eufaula Daily Time's, Nov. 24th, 1904
T h e entire Hart's Block was destroyed by the fire Saturday night about ten o'clock. Hart's block 11~asone of the
chief sectlolls of Eufaula's business center. How the flalnes
originated or 1v11o first disco\reretl the111 has not been learned,
but several claim that they smelt the fire all afternoon, but
could not locate it. It; is l~elievedthat it started in store No. .
2 upstairs and with almost incretlil~le rapidity they spread
aild in the course of a fen- illillutes the entire 1,lock was al~tllost
a seething mass of flames. The department respondetl quickly
to general alarm. but i t \\.as soon seen that it \\.as impossible
to save anything in the \\*hole 11lock. e s c e l ~ tT'etr~ antl Stewart
ant1 Foy Grocery stores. and they \\.ere 1)oth l)itlly tlatnagetl
I)? fire and water.
The fire was the largest that has occurretl here since
September 15th. 1884. \\*hen the
ant1 several houses
were tlestroyecl.
Kearly every inan. \\-oman. ant1 child in the city were
o u t to see the fire ant1 remaining \vatchinp until it had l ~ e e n
rstit~guished. While fightiag the fire. Messrs. Ed Cargill. Ed
Jones and Sid Hortinan \\*ere iiljuretl 11y falling l~rick.
A t about t\vo o'clock the Eufaula Rifles were called out
l ~ ythe Mayor to protect the goods placed on the streets.
T h e H a r t Block was owned 11y Scheur 1Sros. and Fby
Bros. I t ~ v a erected
s
by hfr. John Hart. nearly fifty years ago
a t a cost of $750.000 anrl was a splentlid piece of property
t
will l ~ rel~uilt
e
antl you can put it down
T h e b ~ t m district
that it will 11e an ornament to the city. l~ecause.\\-here a t o m
has as much liberal-mindetl pul~lic-spiritetlcitizetls as Eufaula
has. there is no dailger of its declining or stantling still-it's
l ~ o n n dt o g o on and improve.
j Note 1 9 3 6 T h e 1,lock has 11eet1 relmil t. with t \\-o handsome one-story huiltlit~gsantl l,et~\-eenthese ant1 the renlailling
space nest to the stores left that escapetl total destructiotz is a
new modern up-to-date filling station of unique architecture.)
T h e block was occupied 11v t h e follo~ving.uiz. : No. 1.
Petrv-Stewart Furniture : KO. 2: Charles Hart. grocer : Singer
sewing- Machine : : Dr. M a n g ~ ~office.
m
upstairs : L. W. McL a u g h l ~ nand Ready Dr. Medicine Company upstairs.
No. 3. H. B. nowling Untlertnking Estal~lisl~ment.
upstairs
unoccupied.
No. 4. Cra\~vfortl's Bowling alley.
No. 5. 6. and 7. occupied ljy Fov Bras. antl the upstairs
orer these comprised Hart's Hall aktl was occupietl l ~ ythe
Eufaula Rifles Arrnoi-y. splentlidl\- fitted up as gymnasium.
1)ath rooms. etc.
~~~~~~ess
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Chapter Ten
Business and Industry I11 Barbour County
BARBOUR COUNTY'S DRUG STORE HISTORY
.
When Willianl Eugene l3esson was i ~ o r nit1 a stockade
at Fort Gaines, Georgia, 25 miles froin Eufaula. there ~ v a sno
such thing as a drug store in Barbour co~ulty His parents
had come from France to America, and whet1 he \\-as 12 years
old moved to Earl~ourC o ~ u ~ t and
y , before he was 21 years
old he was practically in charge of the. City Drug store. a t
Eufaula, o~viledaild run by hlcCinty and Smith, and in the
sixities Eugene Besson had long 11een proprietor of this firm,
~ v l ~ i c~hv a smerged illto McCrinty ant1 B111lock Early ill the
seventies it ~ v a sthe "Besson 13rug Store." After several
years, Eesson sold out to E. C. Uullocl~.going- to NIontgomery,
E. B. WEEDON
DR. H. M. WEEDON
[sol
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where he owlled a drug store until his death, at a ripe old
age.
Right after the war between the States, Dr. H. M. Weedon,
\;yho had come here t o take charge of the Military hospital,
having served at Pensacola, opened a drug business in the
building on Broad street in Eufaula, which from that day,
until this, had been used only as the Weedon and Dent Drug
store, the last few years, being owned exclusively by Mr. E.
R - -Weedon, son of Dr. H. M. Weedon.
For over a half century, the firm of Weedon and Dent
was the outstanding drug firm of Southeast. Alabama, owned
by Dr. H. M. Weedon and his brother-in-law, Mr. George
H. Dent. Associated with them for many years was a younger
brother, Mr. Warren I?. Dent, who went to Montgomery
from Eufaula over twenty years ago and was a leading druggist there until his death.
The 'Weedon and Dent Parmers Pills," made and patented by Dr. Weedon, made him famous all over the country.
When Dr. Weedon died July 1st. 1898, E. B. Weedon bought
the husiness which he ran until 1836. then l~ecorningassociated with Milton and Milton as prescriptionist. (A notable
fact that Mr. John M. Milton. deceased, who had been pharmacist for the Old Bullock Drug store and its successors,
had also been prescriptionist for the Weedon Drug store, and
was the prescriptionist for Milton and Milton, of which firm
he was original maember,the same firm of which E. B. Weedon
is now pharmacist The so11 of Mr. George H. Dent, Warren
F. Dent. 11. like E. B. Weedon..grew up in the drug business,
and was prescriptionist in the firm of Beach and Dent, which
succeeded Bullock.
Reach and Dent sold to Beauchatllp ant1 Hill, who sold
to Milton and Milton. V. M. and J. M.. tnro of the four
l~rothers11~110had g r o ~ ~
up~ in
n the drug stores of the city as
prescriptionists.
After the death of V. M. Milton in 1935, the business was
purchased hy James 11. Thaggard, who had previously been
prescriptionist for J. P. Hill, and thus the long chain, unbroken,
is reinforced and held t o the old drug life and post of today by
Weedon and Thaggard. being a culmination of the old Weedon
and Dent--originally Beach and Dent: while the old Beauchamp and H111, carried on by J. P. Hill after George A.
Beauchamp retired, was purchased by Sim A. Thomas and
now run as the Thomas Drug Co. These two have emerged,
as v o u might say. from long lines of ancestry. while the
~ a c g s o nDrug Co.. established years later in the early 1500's
by Albert Clayton, known as the Clayton Drug Co. It was
then purchased by F. L.Warren and run as the Warren Drug
Co.. later becoming the F'inn Drug Company and still later
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l~ecomingthe Finn Drug C o m p a i l ~and
~ still later Thaggard's
Pharmacy. The business was purchased in June, 1924, bjR. M. Jackson from Pugh Harris, who was a t that time
operating it as Harris' Pharmacy, having bought out T l ~ a g gard's Pharmacy some time hefore.
In 1924 it was purchased l ~ yDr. R. M. Jackson, who, in addition to his large drug stock and prescription department,
has placed his seed and flower l~usinessat the top in this
County.
I t is now the City Drug Store,
and Hughes.
All this drug story, linking the years, the business and
then men who have conducted it is interesting, as well as
unique, and brings the reader to the latest drug business,
which stands out, absolutely new-less than five years oldthe Eufaula Drug Co.. owned by W. S.Freeman, who has as
prescriptionist two young men, Arthur Fain and J. T . Mizelle,
who are pharmacists of the new school, but not unmindful of
the benefits of some of the old ideas nlixecl with the newT*
and are giving to the pul~lica most gratifying and in every
way a splendid service. This service has put the Eufaula
Drug Co., while last on the honorable and enviable list, that
has %een notable throughout the years. first on the always
desirable list of the new.
CLAYTON DRUG STORES
As far back a s 1859, the record of Clayton's Drug stores
shows that Dr. M. B. Fenn and Co. were leading druggists.
and contempcrary with that firm was the large firm of McNeill
and Wise.
Later on there was the Clayton Drug Co.. the drug store
of Charles P. and John P. West.
The West Drug Store has always been popular in Clayton. It succeeded Fred Warren, then Jesse Hi'ghtower had
a drug business, which he sold to Clayton and Warren.
Later there were the firms of Reagan and Brown and
then the firm of Feagan and Meadows-then
0. B. and J. G.
Pruett-Grubhs and Winn-T. R. Parish-follo~ved by Lamar
Jennings, J. E. Parish. and still later Watkins and Green,
succeeded by Dr. W. A. Smartt.
The firm of C. P. West was changed t o West Bros.. then
to J. . West and then West and Robertson.
Again J. P. W e s t and Company. and now this firm is
C. T.Millburn, showing a long line of business changes.
The Clayton Drug Company was at one time owned by
Elige Lingo, then E H. Waldon. then b y Easterling. and now
it is again the Clayton Drug Company okrned by Rufus Little.
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Clio-The first drug store at Clio was operated by Dl-.
Glover and now Clio boasts a Cash Drug store.
BARBOUR COUNTY'S LARGEST INDUSTRY
The secocd oldest and the largest industry in Barbour
County, the Cowikee Mills. was established by John W. Tullis, president, and was known as the Eufaula Cotton Mills,
with G. T. Marsh superintendent. The plant was operated
successfully for a number of years, and was the pride of all
this section, as it is today.
I n 1909 the mill was sold to the late Governor B. B. Comer
and with his son, Donald Comer, now president, and the name
changed to "The Cowikee Mills," the entirprise includes Mills
No. 1. (the original Eufault Cotton Mills with its extensive
warehouses. offices and Mill No. 2 (which was originally
the Chewalla Cotton Mills. organized and operated by John
P. Foy and Clarence P. Roberts, then sold to B. B. McKenzie.
Then it was sold to L. L. Conner who operated it until 1929,
when it was purchased by the Comer interests (the Cowikee
Cotton Mills Co.) and is now running full time employing
over one hundred operatives. The Company also operates
Mill No. 3 at Union Springs. Ala.. making the group of
three use approximately 10,000 bales of cotton annually in
their manufacturing of cloth.
These mills also manufacture cotton yarns. cloth and
rope. The three mills manufacture together 250.000 pounds
of yarn annually.
Mill No. 1 a t Eufaula, the original plant of the group,
occupies a whole square block right in the business section
of the city, gives employment to two hundred employees the
\-ear round and has an annual pay roll of $100.000. The lot,
k i t h the superintendent's fine home adjoining. fronting two
streets. was originally the old John McNal, place. later the
Reeves home. huilt by John McNal). and his son-in-law.
Dr. W. hT. Reeves. and was and still is one of the old historic
homes of the County.
Mill No. 2. one l~lockaway on Randolph street. is also
built on the old historic site known as the Skillman home
site, and adjoins the home of the late Charles C. Skillman,
and his wife. Olivia Price Skillman. He was notable in Barbour County as the greatest horseman and she as the greatest
singer that ever lived in the County.
When Donald Comer became president of the Cowikee
Mills Co.. he purchased the old historic Shorter-Welborn
home on Eufaula street. just across the railroad from Mill
No. 1, l~uilta school house for children of the mill operatives,
terraced the la\vn and huilt an outdoor theatre. gymnasium
hall. bathing pools. and: equipped it \vitll all the modern con-
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veniences of an up-to-date Community House and Park. He
also made possible the organization and maintenance of a
fifty-piece band with paid instructor; the maintenance of a
free kindergarten. Besides this wonderful communitv park;
built a dozen or more tenant houses; paved the sidewalks of
"Comer town," as the resident section occupied by employees
is known, and every convenience for these operatives has
been put in their reach.
T h e Mills maintain a 25-acre pasture for the milch cows
of the employees, free.
There is also a baseball diamond nearby and a grandstand
in Comer Park
T h e following have been the superintendents of the
Cowikee Cotton Mills, consecutively: G. T. Marsh, J. I?.
White, C. F. Faulkner, R. D. Jones (superintendent 20 years.)
died April 24th, 1929: 0. F. Benton, present superintendent :
Donald Comer, president ; Comer Jennings. vice president
and general manager; W. C. Glenn, secretary.
LONE OAK POULTRY FARM
Lone Oak Poultry farm owned and operated by Cowikee
Mills Co., with T. J. Lockwood. manager. was established
in 1925 not as a profit-making institution, but to show others
that a profit could be made from poultry raised in this
section of the country.
There are also 50 pens or more in which quail are raised
on Lone Oak Poultry farm. They are sold in mated pairs
to restock game preserves. Turkeys are also raised on Lone
Oak farm, and the methods used by Mr. Lockwood have
shown that "turkey raising" is most piofitable and interesting.
Manager Lockwood has 4500 Leghorn breeders each
year. He has entered his pens of white leghorns in contests
for over ten years and the records are to be proud of. At the
,Alabama laying test in 1933 his pens laid 2536 eggs for an
average of 253.6 eggs per bird.
The high hen laid 321 eggs for a point score of 323.05
or a n average weight per dozen of 24.5.
Several years ago this farm sold a solid car load of laying
pullets-1600 to be exact-to a northern customer. The largest
order ever sent out from the South, that is on record.
Mr. Lockwood came to Eufaula from New Jersey, where
he was born and reared. His father being a chicken dealer.
he grew u p in the poultry business. H e is a past master in
the great art, and most efficient.
There are sixteen buildings on Lone Oak farm, with a half
dozen people employed to do the labor.
The incubator capacity is 10.000 eggs and in spring over
two thousand eggs are sold daily.
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The record of Lone Oak Poultry Farm has been a n
incentive and through its influence and example a n interest
has been s t i n d a t e d all over the country, that has brought
about a more uiliversal poultry raising.
THE TELEGRAPH IN BARBOUR COUNTY
When the Georgia and Florida Telegraph Company was
organized at Apalachicola. Florida, with William Wood as
president, the line was constructed from Marianna, Florida,
to Silver Run (now Seale, Ala.) via Tallahassee, Columbia,
Alabama, Fort Gaines, Georgia, and Eufaula, Alabama, in
1853 and soon a line from Apalachocila to Marianna was
added.
Mr. A. R. Stewart was sent here from Apalachicola and
made manager. John C. Thomas, a lad of nine years, was
employed as messenger and remained in the company's
service until April lst, 1888, retiring- on account of bad health.
In 1861 Manager Stewart was displaced on account of
politics and young Thomas, who as messenger, had learned
the Telegraph business by actual experience, was appointed
manager by LaFayette Howe, superintendent, and then sole
owner of this company, having purchased it from the original
company.
In 1865 the Federal Goverment seized these privately
owned telegraph lines, offices and plant, and appropriated it
to the service of the Government. No person who had not
taken the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government
could send or receive telegrams over these lines and at these
offices Manager Thomas was forced t o turn over the keys
of the Eufaula office and he signed the oath of allegiance.
It is a fact, that Mr. Howe, the owner, was a union man
from Michigan, and the keys were returned t o young Thomas
and he remained in charge as manager.
It is a fact, also, that the Government did not pay him
one cent of damage or rental from the Governmeilt for this
seizure and use of his property, although documents of
promise to pay when the \Val- was over were signed by
officials and are still in the possession of the heirs of J. C.
Thomas and LaFayette Hou-e, and a claim against the
Government by these heirs has been presented to Congress
three times in the past thirty years. but the loss of the original
charter of the company b\- fire 11-hen the Franklin County,
Florida Court House at Apalachicola mas burned, proving
the sale of said company's plant and business to said Howe,
has been the only preventative, from these heirs being able
to recover damages.
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The Goverllilleilt al~andonedthese lines and service after
the war bet\veen the States and the Western Union Telegraph
Company took over and opened for business. Manager
Thomas was retained 11)- the W . U. Company. He was succeeded April 1. 1888. 1 q - Oliver 'I". Moore of Apes, North
Carolina, who held the office of inatlager until 1893. being
transferred from Eufaula to Macon, Georgia. The following
managers served this office : Wood. hioore, Claud Illabry,
then the managers have been, viz :
Miss Carrie Palmer (retired on pension in 1928.) Present
inailager is Xrs. Taylor.
During the seventies? Manager Thomas. Eufaula. and
Mr. Bunyan Davie. Clayton. realized the need of Telegraph
service between Eufaula and Clayton, on account of the enormous cotton business in Barl~ourCounty. Mr. B. Davie built
a line from Eufaula to Clayton. established a "Connecting
Lines Contact" with the Western Union. Later the Western
Uilion Company took over the line appointing Mr. Davie
manager at Clayton.
The telegraph business was exte11si1.e until the long
distance telephone service in Barhour County was established,
w h k h greatly crippled all Western Union business.
Up to this time the Eufaula office had employed a manager, two assistant operators and three messengers, and the
great amount of cotton 1)usiness kept the lines always 11usy.
Now the business oi~lywarrants a manager and two messengers, but a good l~usinessmaintains.
The First Telephone Talk Over Long Distance Was
Between Georgetown, Georgia, and Eufaula, Ala.
Hearing Lowell Thomas, famous radio broadcaster's)
reference to the birthday of the telephone (March 10th) recalled to mind one of the most interesting of the long line of
recorded events that have made the County of Barbour and
the city of Eufaula one of the most historical and every
way notable, not only in the South, but in the entire United
States.
And here is the unique ccTelephone" story: :
In the early seventies. the late Dr. James W. Mercer. of
( ~ e o r g e t o ~ ~ -Quitman
ll.
Couilty, Georgia, was one of the
largest .cotton planters and commercial dealers in southwest
Georgia. He personally directed his immense general mercantile store. warehouses, bought and sold cotton ant1 in
order to keep directly in touch ~viththe "Commercial ?\Tell-s
Department" he learned telegraphy. built a private line from
Georgetown to Eufaula (a distance of tu-o miles across the
Chattahoochee river). H e quickly learned to "send', per-
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fectly but to be sure a t all times, he procured an old time
Morse Register to receive on instead of by ear.
Dr. Mercer's telegraph instructor was John C. Thomas,
manager of the Western Union Telegraph office a t Eufaula
and so close was the friendship and intimacy between these
two men that when Dr. and Mrs. Mercer went to the Centennial Exposition a t Philadelphia in 1876 they were accompanied by young Thomas Randolph Rusk, adopted son of
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Thomas, who had just graduated from
the University of Georgia at Athens, and was chief operator
a t the Western Union Telegraph office a t Eufaula.
Dr. Mercer and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell had met two
preceding summers a t watering places in Canada and they
had become close friends and naturally through Dr. and
Mrs. Mercer, thus thrown with Dr. Bell, the great inventor
of the telephone, which was on display a t the Centennial
Exposition, young Rusk was closely associated with him
during several weeks' stay in Philadelphia.
Securing his permission and with some blue prints and
suggestions, also some remnants of material given him by
Dr. Bell, this young man who mas a deep thinker and scholar,
who sought into things, came home to Eufaula and in a short
time made (though some were crude) two telephones. Dr.
Mercer used his private telegraph line that crossed the Chattahoochee river, and with one of these telephones in the Mercer store a t Georgetown and the other in the battery room
of the Western Union Telegraph office a t Eufaula. Telephone
service was actually carried on privately between Georgia
and Alabama about a year hefore the first telephone in the
United States was put into operation.
As soon as Dr. Bell's patent was obtained and telephones
were manufactured, Dr. Mercer replaced the original "Rusk
made" telephones with instruments rented from the American Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company and these instruments were still in use when the Eufaula Telephone
~ x c h a n i ewas built in 1891, and Dr. Mercer wzs regularly
enrolled as a subscriber to the Eufaula exchange, although
living in Georgetown, Georgia, the Southern Bell Telephone
and Telegraph Company running a new regular Exchange
line to replace Dr. Mercer's original one.
It was during the years of associatioil between Dr. Mercer and Dr. Bell that Mrs. Mercer (formerly Miss Anna
Goode of Georgia) began to Be troubled with a slight deafness
and Dr. Bell, who was also deaf, kept in close touch with
Dr. Mercer for many years, suggesting treatment, and she
used a number of mechanical devices that he advised from
time to time. She was benefitted to some extent by the
personal experiences of the great electrical mind of Dr. Bell.
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Thomas R. Rusk went to a high ~ i n n a c l ein the telegraph
world. He was mailager of the Postal Telegraph Company
a t Columbus, Georgia. H e taught a large class in Telegraph
a t the University of Georgia while he was a senior student
there. and for many years was superintendent of the Southern
Division of the Postal Telegraph Company, <lying suddenly
in his room a t home in Augusta, while reading an electrical
magazine. His foster mother consented t o his being buried
in Linwood cemetery, Columbus, on the family lot of Charles
Phillips, of Columbus, instead of being brought h o n ~ e to
Eufaula-because
of the very warm friendship that existed
between Mr. Charles Phillips and him during the years of
his residence in Columbus and the fact that Mr. Phillips
had also befriended him when a small boy a t Marianna, Florida,
and it was through this a warm friendship between Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Thomas, that the latter adopted the lad a t
twelve years of age. H e was an honor tot ancl greatly beloved
by both the Thomas and Phillips families.
The assertioil that the telephone coililectioil between
Eufaula and Georgetown was the first ever in the United
States is made on the fact that the writer has in possession
impressioil letter book copies of letters from said Thoinas R.
Rusk to Alexander Graham Bell. which reveal the fact that
Mr. Bell wrote him, in reply to first llotificatioil that the
phones he made worked on the Georgetown-Eufaula setup
that, "Yours was the first-it will be four months yet before
I test as far as two miles."
These phones made by Mr. Rusk were given to the late
W. T. Gentry when he was manager of the Atlanta Telephone
Exchange in 1592, and were shown to the managers of the
Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company a t a managers and other officials convention held a t Asheville, N. C.,
July, 1892, and the story was told by Mr. Gentry on this
occasion.
Another spray of glory in Barbour County's having given
to the world a citizen who made the telephone talked over a
year before the inventor's was used.
BRAY HARDWARE COMPANY
There were four Bray Brothers. William H.. John Mr.,
Nathan M., and Wells J. Bray. They were from New Haven,
Connectic,ut. and when they came South and settled in Eufaula, they established the largest Hardware business in
southeast Alabama.
Their large stores and warehouses occupied the block
on which the National Hotel now stands, reaching from the
corner of Broad and Randolph street to the alley beyond
the Pire Department station.
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Messrs. Williani, Nathaii and Wells Bray inailaged the
hai-dware store, while John W. inanaged the large tin shop.
The firm carried an iilli~leilse stock of firearms and
ammunition, the polvdei- a i d loaded shells heing kept i l l a
brick and steel huilding a t the end of Van Buren street,
known as the 'Magazine," and during Iieconstructioil days
a guard was kept over this Magazine, for fear the carpetbaggers would blo17- it up. (See Riots in Barbour County
page-)
T h e faithful porter, who as a youilg boy, went to work
for "Bray's Hardware" as this store was called, spent his
life in the business, when Bray Bros. retired from business,
the next hardware busiiless was that of Barnett and Ross,
and this porter, Arnold Bloodworth, went with the new firm.
As the years passed on Mr. Barnett retired and the firm
was J. L. Ross Hardware Company now owned by Mr.
Kendall Ross, and for some time the Ross Hardware Cornpany was the oilly Hard~varestore in Eufaula.
I n 1899 a hardware business was opened by Foy Bros.,
with I,!. W. Foy, manager, and in looking about for a man
to furnish the hardware experience. when the business l)egan,
a Mr. S. A. Bulloch. who was a graduate of Georgia Tech,
was suggested and his services secured. Sotne time before
1915, Mr. H. C. Holloinan, who had previously secured the
business, sold his interest to Mr. Bulloch and the Eufaula
.Harddare .Company *as establi'shed with the Zollowing
owners : S.A. Bulloch, A. C. Mitchell and A. E. Barlar, and
like Bray Bros. was for so many years the Eufaula Hardware
Company was and is today the largest business of its kind
in southeast Alabama, a feature of which is its farm and
mill supplies, that furnishes a large section adjacent to Barbour County, as well as the entire County.
T h e porter who served Bray Bros. throughout their long
career, Arnold Bloodworth, also served Barnett and Ross,
J. I,. Ross, The Ross Hardware Company, The Foy Hardware Company, H. C. Holloinan Hardware, and continued
with the Eufaula Hardware Company until his death about
eight years ago. H e was a faithful sen-ant I\-ho grew up in
historic Eufaula. and was a novice in inai1y kinds of workmanship.
H e supervised the setting up of the first tm-o coal grates
ever used in Eufaula. one in a residence on Sanford street
om-tied by Rlr. Nathan Bray, and the other in the home of Mr.
E. Stow on Randolph street in 1877.
At that time only anthracite coal was used (Mr. Stow
using it in his large manufacturies of several kinds) and it
was hard to get a coal fire started by former wood users, and
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the lady who occupied the Bray house said to Arnold, "Could
you make me a 'Blower' out of a piece of heavy tin?"
She drew a pattern on a piece of paper for him and he
brought her the blower ill a few days. The writer of this
history is the daughter of that lady and today is using that
same blower. It has l~eenused constantly since the day
it was delivered in 1897 and only has one hole about 5 inches
long in it which does not interfere with its service.
The Eufaula Hardware Store was originally in the old
Sl~orterOpera House building, which was burned a few years
ago, and a commodious new building and warehouse replaces
the old one.
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Chapter Eleven
Music and Libraries In Barbour County
There's music everywhere
On earth and in the air.
Where youth's a t play,
Where age's a t stand,
As we go, or stay
There's melody at hand.
Since the clay that four immigrants, 1-owing dowil the
Chattahoochee River, perhaps caught the echo of the song
of the woodland orchestra of birds singing, the notes of melody
have become louder and stronger, until today real music,
made by artists, is heard in the air, in the homes, in the
churches, in the schools, on the streets, practically everywhere
in Barhour Couilty. I t is real first class inusic for the illusical
advantages of Barhour Co~ultyhave been such, as to produce
the best results.
Going back to the early fifties, Prof. John Van Houteil
came to accept a position as music instructor in Unioi~Female
College. H e was 11orn in Patterson, New Jersey, and at the
age of 14 suffered an attack of sore eyes. The treatment his
physician gave him destroyed his sight, and as he grew up
his mother applied his portion of the fortune left by his
father to his musical education, and personally carried him
t o Germany. There he studied under Litz and other of the
great masters. Fbte must have matched the lnail and the
Ebwil, when he was led to accept the offer t o come to Euiaula.
The record of the later years proved that it did.
Although bred and born a Northerner, he had not been
here long, when he had become, as it were, a "deeply died in
the wool'' Scutl~erner. H e loved the people and they loved
him. H e taught piano, ~ i o l i nand voice. to four generations
of Barbour C o u i l t ~girls, and they all idolized him. The concerts he gave were history making for the Count\-. H e played
the organ in the Baptist church. 11-eekl\-. had all unexcelletl
choir, played at the ~veddingsand his orchestra \\-as the pride
of this sectioli of the state. Most of the best teachers of the
past 50 years a,nd the finest singers and pianists were his pupils.
who had added to his glory by the records of success they
have made.
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l hey have been : Singers-Callie
h 4
C a r ~ i l eKoll) : Sallie
131-adley; Carrie (Malone) Doughtie : Eula
Gudwitl: i
e (Kolb) Kichardso~l; Olivia
1I'rice) SIkil!man ; Ketta (Thornton) Locke ; Louise Shorter ;
Annie ( S m i t h ) Keese ; Miilllie (Beay) Guice ; Anna (Guice)
Uratliioil: Anna (Sylvester) Edmnnds ; Mattie (Thomas)
Thompsoi~; Ella (S@urlock) Grier: Eloise Buford; Alice
(Shorter) Jelks ; Effie (Jennings) Battle ; Sallie (Jennings)
Kendall : Fapilie Kehoe ; Lucy Glenn ; Janie McNab : Amelia
(Cargill) Callen. Pianists-Mamie
(Rhodes) Long-on whose
shoulders Prof. Van Huoten's mantle fell and she has carried
it so grandly throughout the long years and is still holding
his flame aloft-Islay
(Reeves) Lampley ;; Effie (Jennings)
Battle : Atlilie (Jennings) Knox ; Nellie Bray ; Lily (Lightfoot) Bradley; Daisy (Lightfoot) Steagall; Mattie (Thomas)
Tl~oinpson:Lillie (Jones) Head; Mary Jones.
The roster of Prof. Van's old orchestra was viz: A. W.
Latimer, violin : Austin Cargill, fife ; R. D. Shropshire, clarinet;
Henry Heron? drums ; E. D. Corker, cornet ;J. K. Battle, cornet
George W. Whitlock. flute : John H . Whitlock. base violin :
Romeo Cargill. vioncella : I,. J . Richardson, trombone : Robert
\hi. 'Ilialker, l~asso.
I n the early eighties, Mr. George Mr. Whitlock organizaed the E. B. Young orchestra. The illembers were G. W.
Whitlock. first violin:; Prof. S. B. Becter, secoiltl violin;
Prof. Barbe and J. B. Whitlock, violencello ; James Dowe,
pianist: Romeo Cargill, violin: Mott L. Pond, cornet :: Dr.
Edgar Mitchell, clarinet : Robert Walker, trombone; E. D.
Corker, cornet.
Barbour County's- first music club was organized by
Prof. Van Houten and was composed of the best singers in
the town and his advanced pupils.
H e stated on many occasions that after hearing the voices
of the gfeat singers of Europe, "the finest, sweetest and most
perfect in every way was that of his pupil, Olivia Price Skillman. whom he taught and who sang alto in his choir and all
his historic concerts. Her lo\-el? v o l e ga\-e joy through her
life, eveil-in estreine old age.
While Prof. \-ail Houten lived. he gave to t l ~ ecornrnunitr
what no man ever before or since has given.
The concerts he gal-e. every dollar (when an admittance
fee was charged) vent to Uilion Female College or some
benevolent cause.
At one time he presented to the First Baptist Church a
fine organ for which he paid $1000 and his generous purse
was always open to charity. Besides his genius, he was a
man of high and noble impulses-unable to see the beauties
( Buvkiu)
( Beckhatn)
'
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of this earth, he lived in a world of physical darkness, with
only the sublime music in his soul to give him pleasure.
I t was Christmas morning when his spirit winged its
flight to the mansions above, and while Callie (Gargile) Kolb,
whom he taught and loved, sang, with voice trembling and
sweet, ' The Angels That Stand on the Heavenly Strand, Are
Singing Their Welcome Home" to music that he composed, it
was like the echo of the song of rejoicing "up there," and
when his skilled fingers, touched the Harps of the New
Jerusalem, the ecstacy of bliss. that thrilled him and the glorious halo of light and beauty that he beheld was compensation
for the years his eyes saw only darkness on earth.
Among the violin players of the olcl days were Harrison
Hart, Alfred Dickinson, George W. Whitlock, J. W . Hortman,
Belle Hortman. In the next generation were Nettie Locke,
John Reeves and then there came Nellie Wolff Beringer, a
finished artist of today, a long time meml~erof the Music
Lovers Club. Today there are a dozen or inore girls and hoys
of the Eufaula High school orchestra who play the violins.
G. Wilkinson.
their instructor and director. Mrs. 'I'.
In 1906. Prof. S. V. DeTrinis came froin Pensacola.
Florida, where he was director of a Marine l ~ a n d ,which he
brought here to play at a Chautauqua. H e was so impressed
with the towr~and County and the musicians he met that he
returned after a few months and organized a military band.
which afterwards, was famous. as the 2nd Alahama Regiment
band.
After several successful years a t Eufaula Prof. DeTrinis
went to New York where he opened a studio, returning to his
first love of teaching violin. It was he, who first discovered
the great talent of Miss Christine McCann (who has hecome
famous as a violinist.) She is the daughter of Rev. and Mrs.
J. E. McCann. I t was while her father was presidin,o elder
of the Methodist Eufaula district in Rarl~ourcounty that she
first began her violin career.
The Cowikee Mills hand. directed manv years hy J. E.
aimpkins and now by Alfred Reasley, has been the pride of
Barbour County for nearly twenty years. I t has been made
possible through the influence and attitude of Donald Comer.
president of the Cowikee Cotton Mills.
It is composed of about forty boys and girls and is a great
asset to the community.
Since the days of the W a r Between the States, the Cargill
family has been conspicious for their musical talent, inherited
from! Austin C. Cargill, fifer in the Confederate army.
All his sons -were musicians and his daughters singers
and pianists. His grandson. Elmer C. Cargill. is an exceptionally fine cornetist. and pianist. and for a time he played the
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cornet lead in Prof. DeTrinis' band. organizin~an orchestra
?
of his O \ ~ ~ Iwith
.
his wife. Helen (Woods) Cargill. gifted pianist, that was the joy of the dancing set at the Couiltry Club
and elsewhere for years. The members of this orchestra
were: Elmer Cargill, 1st cornet Marvin Tharp. 2nd cornet;
J. T. Dunalvay, sllcle trombone; Gladstone O'Byrne, taps and
drums.
Later on came the Hortman Bros. with their fine orchestra. that traveled all over the South, carrying the musicians and their instruments. in a specially built trailer car.
Hobart C. (Puss) Hortman, was leader and Ambrose C.
Hortman played both violin and saxophone. Dennard Encram was pianist (see Note D. Engram page) ; Simpson @y,
b
banjo; Levie H. Shelley, violinist: William Stewart, traps
and drums. This was the first roster, but later for several
years the band was increased to ten musicians, and different
artists were employed from time to time by the Hortmans.
This orchestra was especially popular in Florida during
the winter seasons. I t c ~ a s e dto exist three years ago. but
was probably the 111ost popular traveling organization in the
South.
Up to the illness that overtook Prof Van Houten two years
11efore his death Dec. 25. 1890, his "Chorus Club" had been
the highest musical note in the County. and in 1892 Mrs.
T. J. Simmons, wife of the president of Union Female College,
organized the E.ufaula Choral Society. This club was conlposed of all of the leading singers of Eufaula and several of
them are charter members of the Eufaula Music Lovers Club
which was organized in November. 1911, by Mrs. 'I?
C.
.
lloughtie. Carrie (Malone) one of Prof. Van Houten's pupils,
whose voice was sweeter than ally nightingale that ever trilled.
Its First president was Mrs. E. Y. Dent (Annie McCormick)
Dent. The directors of the Musci Lo\-ers Club have been
Mrs. C. S. McDowell. Mrs. T. G. Wilkinson. and now Mrs.
L. Y . Dean, 111.
The organists of the different city churches have heen
Baptist, Prof. J. C. Van Houten. Mrs. R. F. Kolb. Miss Emma
Brooks. Miss Mattie Thomas, Miss Islay Reeves. and for
all her life, except a few years that she resided in Columbus.
Georgia, and Birmingham. Alabama, Mrs. E. T. Long (Mamie
Rhodes) the musical genius, who is beloved as few women
have been, has been the organist. T o her the organ is a living
human being almost and her music. while having all the
finish of the classic artist. has a most unusual. harmonious
touch, that any one who is familair with her playing. can
recognize without seeing her a t the instrument. She has
played for forty years for the church. the dance, and all the
social, patriotic, fraternal and civic entertainments in the
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County, giving- her services without one cent of pay. Only
recently has she accepted a salary as organist.
During a period of 25 years. she played the accompaniments and helped coach 97 amateur concerts, plays, dramas,
etc., all given for some benevolent purpose.
She is still the enthusiastic. musical note in Barbour
County life she was forty years ago and is greatly heloved
and al~l~reciatrd.Recently she is being asslsted l ~ yJulia11
Edwards, yoring High school l ~ o ywho is a musical wonder.
Failing health recently prevei~tsher attendance a t Church
and William Cauthoril is now the capal~leorganist at thd
First Baptist Church.
The organists of the first Methodist Church have been
for long years. Mrs. W. C. Reese (Annie Smitha) and for lnorc
than forty years, Miss Lucy Gleilll had. and like Mrs. Long
a t the Baptist, is still holding the position of organist. Mrs.
C. S. McDowell and Mrs. J. R. Barr are fine organists and
often supply for Miss Glenn.
The Presbyterian organists have been Mrs. J. C. Davis.
Miss Nellie Bray (deceased) and Mrs. E. Y. Dent (Annie
McCormick) who. after her children were grown up, studied
inusic for the sole purpose of contributing her services as
organist of this church. She 1,ecaine very proficient, ancl under
her direction. the P r e s b y t e r i n choir. was a joy to the church
and the community. She was also a fiine pianist and was a
great asset to the music of the cornn~unity. Mrs. R. G. Wilkinson, Miss Mary Stewart and Mr. William Cawthon have
been organists of thig church.
At St. James Episcopal Church, Mr. J. H. Whitlock was
the organist from the sixties until Mrs. P. H. Morris (Pauline
Seymore) in the late eighties, succeeded him. and later years
Mrs. Henry A. Dent (Etta Copeland) has been and still is
organist. For quite a while Mrs. T. G. Wilkinson was organist. Miss Xddie Skillinan. now Mrs. Virgil Chandler, of
Montgomery. vTas organist a t one time &d Mrs. C. A.
Dantyler is now assistailt t o Mrs. Dent as organist.
Olile of the gifted inusiciails, of which Barhour is very
proud. is Prof. Dennard Engram, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. D.
Engram of Ecfaula. After graduating a t the University of
Alabama, he went to New York and studied music under the
best American artists a t Columbia University ancl at famous
artists' studios. T4ater he went to Italy and took post graduate courses, under several of Europe's most famous teachers
While in Europe he also studied the languages, receiving diplomas, that were most flattering to him, and now for a numher of years, he has been Professor of Foreign Languages a t
the Un;versity of Alabama, where he is classed among the most
capable instructors of that institution. As a musician he is
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rated among- the best in America and Barl~ourCounty is very
proud of his achievements.
As artist and teacher. pianist and soloist. Mrs. J. K.
Battle (Effie Jennings), was brilliant in musical circles. Her
pupils have all reached the most enviable heights as musicians
and are n ~ o i ~ ~ i n eto
n t her
s wonderful ability. Eufaula's musical page in Earbour County history glows with records of
her concerts throughout her career.
Miss Emma Brooks (Mrs. 0. IVorthy) was for many
years a teacl~erat Eufaula having her studio a t Union Female
College, and her pupils have all hecome fine musicians. Her
sister, Mrs. Fanny Raleigh, also was a fine musician. Both
of these artists furnishing, in the old days to Eufaula, the joy
of their fine musical talent.
Organists at the Church of the Holy Redeemer have from
time to time 11een : Miss Fannie Keho. Miss Nannie Blackmon
(Mrs. H. C. Reynolds), Mrs. J. K. Battle. Mrs. J. M. Keinclall,
(Sallie Jeilnicgs) Mrs. Fan nie Raleigh.. Miss Emma Brooks.
Miss Mattie Thomas (Mrs. C. M. Thompson). Mr. Gladstone
O1,yrne. Mrs. D. T. Sheehan, Miss Margaret Hamilton and
Miss Margaret Corcoran (Mrs. Emmett Jones).
A11 of these organists were Prodestants except Miss Keho.
Mr. O'Byrne. Miss Hamilton and Miss Corcoran. and were
paid organists.
The leading Vocalists ill Eufaula today are Mrs. C. S.
AfcDowell, Mrs. E. S. Shorter, Mrs. H. C. Glenn, Mrs. W. C.
Flewellen, Mrs. M. W. Stewart, Mrs. T. G. Wilkinson. Mrs.
Harry McCulIoughs. Miss Hilda Glenn.
.4ncl last 11ut far from least, is the Eufaula High School
Orchestra of nearly fifty instruments and the High School
Glee Clul). hoth instructed 11y and directed by Mrs. T. G.
Wilkinson, whose wonderful musical ability is the great
musical asset that has kept Barbour County's stand so high
musically ancl has given such joy.
This School orchestra ranks with the best in the land and
the Glee Cluh is eciually \\.orthy of highest praise which lmth
get from an a,ppreciative public.
The leading Music teacher at Clayton. Alabama. has always been Miss Stella Davie and her pupils have gpne out
from year to year, spreading- her fame as a musician and
instructor. And among the fine singers a t Clayton are Mrs.
Guy Winn (Elllene Glenn).
During the seventies Miss Minna Collins of Clayton mas
the music teacher who. althoueh blind, was an expert teacher
and fine performer of organ and piano. She was the daughter
of the late Hart Collins and sister of Jairus and Justice and
Miss Lutie Collins of Clayton.
Miss Stella Davie is still teaching at Clayton and is
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greatly beloved. She is a member of the notable Davie family
of Barbour County, a,sister of Mr. Bunyan Davie of Clayton,
notable as one of the strongest forces and field workers ot
the Baptist Sunday School work of the State.
REVERIES OF PROF. V A N HOUTEN'S OLD VIOLIN
Written l ~ yMattie Thomas Thompson and read
a t an Alumni meeting of Union Female College
at the Eufaula Chautauqua June, 1910.
Mr. Van's old Violin':
I heard voices whisper ,and the
sound came t o me as from the tomb of the past and gone.
As my ear caught the strains, it called up the songs of many
happy days, and I fain would give to you music that
girds those olden days- rememherances, sweet, as songs of
birds that come unbidden. I would have these strains bring
fondly back the old romances that sing themselves in your
brain, until, life today, seems set to rhythm, and your souls
to tlieir refrain of mingled joy ant1 sadness. Though the past
is (lead, it is not forgotten.
No, we never do forget. W e let the years go by, wash
the111 clean wit11 tears, leave them to .l,leach out in the open
day, or lock them carefully by, like dead friends' clothes,
till we shall dare unfold them without pain, but we forget
not, never can forget.
But before, my itrings are swept to bring forth, unforwotten
lays, suppose I tell many here, who do not know, a
9
ltttle about Mr. Van's old violin. I came to dear Eufaula,
the fairest spot in all the world to call home, more than forty
years ago. M y Master, was refined, gentle and loving, as a
\voman. H i s softness and delicacy of touch. put his own
aesthetic soul into my strings and my sweetest melody. was
ever the inspiration of his F e a t music mind.
I first grew familiar m ~ t hhis soft white hands, when the
Iriend who was closer than a brother to him. and who loved
him so well lay sick. and when for weeks dailv he sat i t this
friend's hedsicle and played. for "Bonnie Annie Laurie I'd Lay
Me Down and Dee." "The M c c k i n ~Bird." "Then You'll
Remember Ble" and "Home Sweet Home". It sent thrills
to the heart that have echoed in the lives of two women here
iodav. then rlot born.
The last time those dear fingers held mv bow. my master
was bowed with the weirht of sorrow and suffering. and while
his heart a n d body ached with. he said to this same friend of
2 life tinie (who had brourht him a new string for me1 : "What
mav I rrive vou tonifit. Tohn?" The ;lnswer was : "Weber",
and. hp plavct.1 "Von-Weber's T,ast Musical Thoupht.9' Sooil
after he .-err too weak to hold me and 7 was laid away in
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the old red lir,ed case, with the doe skin gloves, the silk hand-.
kerchief and my g-uard.
After a time it mas my happy fate to fall into hands that
hbld me sacred because of what I had been to the old Master.
for the link that binds him to the new one is friendship true.
The Van Hot~ten-Whitlockties were the sweetest that ever
.
existed between souls, alike to friendship drawn.
F a r back in the unforgotten years, I wonder how many
trips I made from the vineclad cottage on the hill to dear
old Union Female College, lying in my red-lined case, in the
foot of the old Scooped top buggy, that shaded my Masters'
sightless eyes.
Uncle Randal, the faithful old valet and old John. the
big Bay horse, that carried us, were a part of us, as completely
as was my case, and his gold headed cane that always led
him up the long walk from the gate to the front music
studio in the old Union Female College.
Some are here today who know me well. M y bow has
beat time to their playing in the grand Commencement Concerts of those years.
'Some have gone t o lands far distant.
And with strangers made their home
Some are gone from us forever,
Longer here they might not stay.
They have reached a fairer region
F a r away, far away."
I have rested beneath the classic chin. while those soft
white hands picked out "Old Black Joe" and my how drew
out with sounds akin to pain:
C1
A tear in every note,
A sob in every strain,
Soft as the shadows creep across
The listless sea.
Then TLrou'll rememher me."
I n the music room. in the Chapel, in the First Baptist
Church. in the old Shorter O ~ e r aHouse. I have led tho
orchestra that was Eufaula's pride, even as our High School
orchestra is today.
Onlv fotlr of the old number greet me. Austin Cargill's
Ffe is silent and is in the Alabama room of t h e Confederate
Mtiseurn at Richmond. Va.. and he sleeps where the churchyard myrtles bloom above. A. W. Latimer's violin is unstruny.
and he s l ~ e n swhere the Georpia birds sine-. Henrv Heron.
long ago beat his last tattoo and his drum is muffled forever.
Onlv a short time ago. Robert TI. Shropshire was laid to rest.
"at home" in Fairview. and the clear sweet tones of his clarinet
came back on memory's wings. as friends of other days stood
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around his open grave in the t\vili,oht. Ronleo Cargill abides
in Montgomery, but in his busy life, he no longer plays on
his cello.
Robert Walker lives in Birmingham, but I do not know
whether or not he ever now blows his trombone. (since deceased).
So gladly do I greet the other four. G. W. W.hitlock, E. D.
Corker, J. H. Whitlock and J. K. Battle. Long may they go
close with me. (At date of this history all of these are dead,
except Romeo Cargill.)
As I was carried along the street the other day I heard the
cry of "Flish." My every fiber thrilled. I was again in the
old buggy, with my master's supper, perching and floundering
:il)out my case, as we drove home in the evening. How fond
of fish he was: how VITill Cohb and Lexie Besson loved to go
to the Barbour Creek Saturday morning, just to catch some
fish for his dinner.
One day the express wagon left him a large shad, with no
name of the sender attached. but in the mouth was a pill box
2nd inside a $5.00 gold piece, with these words on a s l i ~of
paper: "A tcken for the Fishers' Horn Pipe" and "kt6ney
Musk" Friday night. John D. Roquemore was the sender, but
Mr. Van never guessed until one day a wedding was announcecl .
One rilemorable day in 1865. there floated out on the
l~reezethat l~lelvover the wester11 hills of our city the notes of
('Yankee Doodle."
My master was sitting on the porch of Mrs. Hunter's home
on Broad street. The mayor. Dr. Pope. rode by and said,
"We have just carried the truce" to General Grierson. His
Inen are corniilg down over the hill. At once my master called
for me ant1 although he \\-as born in Yankee Land and had
1101: heen in the Southland long enough to love it as he learned
t:c a s the years passed and while the boys in 11lue marched by,
1.0 the tnusic of "Yankee Dootlle." he sat there and drew from
my strings the su-eetest strains of "Dixie." and "Old F*plks a t
Hoin e."
The closest friends I ever had were Callie Cargill Kolb and
Belle Hortman. The one sang to me with a voice sweeter
than any mocking bird's trill I ever imitated.
The other always strung me. and learned to play me, and
very like her teachers' playing was hers. She. two, has gone
home and methinks. teacher and pupil ,strike hands across
the heavenly strings in exquisite notes of joy and praise.
More than eighteen years have passed since I joined in.
corn~neilcementexercises, and how glad I am to he here: so
*alatl that she who is to hold ine and draw forth my notes 1)eax-s
the name I k i ~ r ~sovwell. long ago. Others who hear it loved me,
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Barbour History 001-99

Transcription

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